The Infected
by nicoletta2k
Summary: It has been two years since the infection spread through Japan, possibly the world. It has also been two years since the former Host Club has met their secret princess. Most of them have given up upon meeting her again, yet there is one who still holds onto his faith, even though it's thin. So guess how they all react when they encounter a certain person at their school.
1. Chapter 1: The Encounter

**Hey, so this is my second fanfic I made, that is hopefully better than my other one (that I'm not giving up on (not yet at least)). Please leave a review after this chapter telling me of you want me to continue or not. :)**

**WARNING: Contains some course language. (Barely on this chapter, but there is in future chapters.)**

* * *

How long had it been? Two years? Yes, that was it. It had been two years ago since the horrible parasite spread through Japan, possibly the world. It had been two years ago when people started to lose their minds and eat people; their neighbours, friends, family, anyone. All buildings in the city were abandoned, with only gore stained people ready to eat the next thing with a pulse. Though, there was one building in the city who had healthy and alive people. They were six handsome men in fact. It was at the used-to-be most prestigious school in Japan. It just happened to be that these men used to be in a club, a Host club. And it also just happened to be that they all had been surviving together because they all were together having a secret club meeting planning a surprise birthday party they were supposed to have later on in the week for the only female they had in their club when it all started. But, of course, they never had that party, nor haven't they seen this female since. When it all started, they tried to contact her but failed. At first they thought that they would look for her, but never found the opportunity to go far enough from the school. Then they just prayed that they would meet her again. Now they have lost all hope. They don't know if she is alive, dead or if she became infected, though they know one thing for sure; they'll never see her again. Well, at least five of the men believe so. There is one who still believes that they'll see her again, even though their hope is thin.

* * *

Today was like any other day in the week. Three days in a week, five of the men would split into two groups and search around the school for any sort of supplies while one stays behind in the club room to guard the supplies they have from anything. By now you may think that they have empty it all out in the school, but it is a very large school and there are still some rooms they have not entered, also meaning that there are some infected lurking around still. It seems so that the food supply was never a problem since the used-to-be club room's kitchen has always had cakes, chocolates and other sweets (thankfully including fruits) magically appear. One certain used-to-be host loves that.

"Whose turn is it to stay?" the youngest identical red-headed twin, known as Kaoru Hitachiin, asked in the club room.

"Tamaki was last time, so according to the order we have, it's Hikaru's turn." a raven haired boy with glasses said, himself known as Kyouya Ohtori, starting to gather up his backpack and weapon to go out. The oldest twin, his name being Hikaru Hitachiin, turned his gaze away from the window and shrugged.

"Fine by me." he replied and continued to gaze out the window. Lately that was his way of passing time. Also known as the closest thing to a TV he could have. He saw one of the infected people walking on the street outside the gates of Ouran, blood stained teeth peeking through it's mouth. "Disgusting…" the twin muttered in a whisper. The other hosts grabbed any supply bag that they would use plus a couple weapons just in case they saw one of the monsters that still lurked around the school.

"We'll see you later tonight then, Hika-chan!" the small former senior said, him being Mitsukuni 'Hunny' Haninozuka, also being a judo and karate champion as well as the oldest in the entire group, but you would never guessed it with his child-like appearance, and waved as he, his cousin, Takashi 'Mori' Morinozuka, him himself being silent but was a national kendo champion, and the rest started to walk out the door.

"Bye." Hikaru said and lazily waved his hand. The rest of the group left, leaving him alone. Having the job of watching the supplies was easy, all you do is just sit and wait for the others to return. Nothing really came to take anything, they had the guarding job for just in case. Probably during these past two years, Hikaru has only once done anything as 'guarding'. He just killed an infected used-to-be student who happened to be walking past, otherwise he would only sit and wait. He sighed and got up from his seat by the window. He started to walk around the room, thinking of something to do. He stopped for a brief moment by a wall who was covered with framed photos. All of them showing the time they had before hell broke loose. He scanned through the pictures before his eyes landed on one, where all the host members were around their secret princess. "If only you were here…" He let out a small sigh. "We'll meet again, someday…" he said to himself as he went over to a couch and sat down. He laid himself across the old couch and stared up to the ceiling. Was there anything for him to do?

_CLINK_

Hikaru's eyes shot open. He sat up and groggily rubbed his eyes. It took him a moment to realise he had fallen asleep. He woke up because he heard some weird 'clink' noise outside.

"Are you trying to attract them?" a voice called out. It was very muffled, so he couldn't distinguish if it was male or female, but he knew it wasn't one of his friends.

"Shit!" he whispered quickly and got off the couch. He quietly ran towards their weapons' cabinet they had at the corner of the room, grabbed a small gun and went into the kitchen to hide and guard the more important supplies, food and medicine. He had the door open a little, so he could peek out to the club room. He heard footsteps and the door opening.

"Man, you were not kidding when you said that this place had a bunch of supplies! This is a freakin' goldmine!" a feminine voice said.

Two figures came into his site with their backs facing him, one wearing an old red t-shirt with denim shorts and blonde hair tied up in a ponytail, and the other wearing a lighter shade of denim shorts and a green hoodie with its hood up so he couldn't see their hair.

"Yeah, but I expected this room to have the least weapon supplies! I just knew that there would probably be some food here." the other person said. The person had a feminine voice as well, so Hikaru knew both of them were girls, but for some reason the one with a green hoodie sounded familiar.

"Who cares? Grab anything that we could use!" the blonde girl said and ran towards the weapons' cabinet. The girl with the hoodie looked for something in her bag before she put it down the floor. She looked around the room before she walked over to the wall with photographs.

"Jeez, doesn't this bring back memories…" the girl said as she looked at the photos.

"Huh? Oh yeah! Didn't you say you used to go to this school?" the blonde asked and faced her friend.

The first thing he noticed about the girl was her striking emerald green eyes, after that he realised that she was quite young. No older than him. The blonde started to walk to her hooded friend and joined on looking at the pictures. "And I thought that you were only messing with me when you said that you dressed up as a dude." the blonde said and pointed to one of the pictures. "How did you end up in that club now again?"

"I accidentally broke some vase and I needed to become a member to pay it off." the hooded girl responded. Hikaru's heart began to race as he listened to the conversation, this couldn't really be her, could it?!

"Oh... I've ought to say, these guys look pretty darn good. What do you think happened to them on that day?" the blonde asked and pointed to another picture.

"To be quite honest, Miya, I'm not sure. But I presume that their families fled with them to another country with their private jets or something." the hooded girl said and shook her head. "Damn rich bastards…" she muttered. That did it.

"Haruhi?!" the oldest twin shouted and jolted up from his hiding spot. The two girls turned their heels and pointed each a gun at him that they took out of their pockets within half a second. Finally Hikaru could see the mystery girl's face. It was the same coffee brown orbs for eyes that he had not seen for two whole years, and the once boyish looking cut hair was now half an inch above her shoulders. Their piercing glares soften into eyes filled with disbelief.

"Holy fucking crap! Hikaru?!" Haruhi said and dropped her gun. Before another word was said, Haruhi was engulfed into a bear hug by the emotional twin.

"It's been so long!" he cried in happiness.

"Ditto." Haruhi said muffled against his shirt.

"Don't wanna interrupt this touching moment, but are there any more?" the blonde girl asked. Hikaru calmed down and loosened his grip around Haruhi, who was now gasping for air.

"More? More what?" Hikaru repeated.

"Survivors! Duh!" Miya said and rolled her eyes.

"Uh, yes? All of the club has been living here the past two years…" Hikaru said somewhat confused. Both girls eyes widened.

"Really?!" they said together, in a familiar fashion the twins do.

"Yeah, they are all around the school looking for something we could use."

"When will they return?" Miya asked, a little bit too excited for Hikaru's tastes.

"Um, like in three hours or something?"

"That'll take too long!" Haruhi said and pulled Hikaru's arm so they could leave the room.

"Hey! Where are you taking me?"

"To the school's intercom!"

* * *

"Do you think these work, Takashi?" the small senior asked. The two former seniors and the younger twin were in one of the high school's science rooms. The smaller of the two former seniors had just found a small box filled with batteries.

"Mm." the taller and most silent of the two said.

"That should be enough to at least keep our flashlights functioning for a couple months." the redhead said and smiled.

"Yeah!" Hunny cheered and packed in the battery box into his supply bag.

"I think we're done here, I couldn't find anything in particular." Kaoru said and picked up his supply bag.

"Okay! Let's go, Takashi!" Hunny exclaimed and put his bunny backpack on. Just when he was about to take one step he got grabbed on the shoulder by his cousin.

"Wait, Mitsukuni." the silent man spoke.

"Um, Mori? What are you doing?" Kaoru said and had a confused look on his face.

"Wait and listen." Mori replied. They waited but the only sound that came was the sound of leaves rustling outside from the wind.

"I don't hear anything, Taka-"

"Does this thing work?" they heard a familiar female voice say through the intercom speaker, interrupting Hunny. "Kaoru, Tamaki, Kyouya, Mori, Hunny, all of you! Come to Music Room #3, right now!" the voice said before the intercom was turned off. All three of the used-to-be hosts were staring at the intercom speaker with wide eyes of disbelief.

"Was that Haru-chan?" Hunny asked quietly and innocently. Before a response came, Kaoru bolted out of the room.

The two remaining people in the room looked at each other and ran out as well.

* * *

"My god! That was intense!" Tamaki, aka Tamaki Suoh, the club's former president and self-proclaimed 'king', exclaimed and combed a hand through his hair. He and Kyouya had encountered a group of seven infected locked up in one of the spare classrooms.

"There better be something good we will find due to the fact that we lost so much ammo." Kyouya said and used the edge of his shirt to clean his glasses, who had gotten some blood on it while he was shooting at the former students.

"I think that we'll find something extraordinary today! Today we'll see or find something that'll make us happy for sure!" Tamaki said, being the positive fool he has always been. Even though all members had matured greatly during these two years, they were still some things that could never change.

"I sure hope so." Kyouya replied and went over to a desk to start searching. Tamaki smiled and did the same until the intercom went on.

"Does this thing work?" they heard a familiar female voice say through the intercom speaker. "Kaoru, Tamaki, Kyouya, Mori, Hunny, all of you! Come to Music Room #3, right now!" the voice said before the intercom was turned off. Both of them stared at the speaker with wide eyes.

"Was that...?" Kyouya started, so shocked that he couldn't even finish his sentence.

"Haruhi!" Tamaki shouted and ran out the room. Kyouya silently walked out to the hallway, watching his best friend running like a fruit loop.

"I guess we did find something extraordinary today…" he said to himself and followed his friend in a calm matter.

* * *

**Well, what do you think? Do you want me to post the second chapter? Please leave me a review and tell me what you think! Bye guys! :D**


	2. Chapter 2: Reunion

**I broke my personal record! :D I felt so confident with this story when I checked this morning to see two reviews, two favourites and two followers just on the first ten hours. And then I almost screamed when I saw I had another three reviews, another favourite and two more followers after school! I'm super giddy by posting this chapter!**

**Note: I got my inspiration for this story when watching Pewdiepie's let's play ****_The Last Of Us_****, so if you see any similarities, I apologise, I tried to make as many original ideas as possible.**

**WARNING: Contains Course Language. (Not this chapter though. xD)**

* * *

"Do you guys think they'll come right away or later?" Miya asked as the trio were heading back to the clubroom.

"I hope they'll come as soon as possible." Haruhi responded and sighed. "Hikaru, when are you going to let go of me?" she asked with an annoyed tone. As you may have guessed, Hikaru has had his arm around her the whole entire time.

"Once I have made sure I've held you long enough to repay those two years." he said with a devil grin on his face. Haruhi groaned and kept staring ahead.

"Don't you two look cute together!" Miya teased and winked. Both Haruhi and Hikaru flushed red and gaped at her for saying that. "Were you two like a secret couple or something before?" she giggled.

"NO!" they both shouted, their blush going darker by second.

"We were, and still are, just friends!" Haruhi said in defence.

"Sure you were…" Miya said with a smirk plastered on her face. "But now when you guys have reunited, you should maybe try to go out?"

"Miya, I think everyone can agree that the last thing everyone needs to worry about is love for the moment." Haruhi said with a stern look on her face. Hikaru did feel somewhat disappointed from hearing that. But he knew that even if the world didn't have this horrible disease in it and everything was still normal, Haruhi would still find a reasonable enough excuse for her not to date people.

"Fine, be that way, it only means that there's more of a chance for me." Miya said and shrugged. Haruhi rolled her eyes at that statement.

"I have a question," Hikaru started and the two girls faced him. "why are you guys in such a rush to see the other guys?"

"They need to come and pack!" Haruhi said like it was obvious as Miya shook her head and continued to face the path ahead.

"Why?" he asked, getting really confused. Miya stopped walking and faced him again.

"You mean we haven't told you?" Miya asked.

"Told me what?"

"Now when I think about it, we haven't really mentioned anything at all." Haruhi said.

"Ah yeah, you're right Haru." Miya said and faced her friend. "Well, to start things off, we are from a community."

"A community?" Hikaru repeated.

"The day when it all happened, a group of survivors, including me and dad, sealed off a whole entire area of the city. Slowly every day survivors came, either we found them or vice versa, to our community and it grew from thirty people to now two hundred. It's a good community, we have doctors, we have a vegetable field, we have clean water and even electricity. There are ten people there who are what you can call a political group, they make decisions and laws for our community. Most of the time the public has a vote and other times is it just them and the hunter groups who make a decision." Haruhi told Hikaru, and for him it seemed a bit too good to be true.

"The hunter groups are twenty people divided into eight groups who goes out to the 'outer city' to search for supplies and other survivors five times a week. Haru and I are two of the hunters. We all need to be back to the city before midnight, but we would rather come earlier, that's why we are sort of in a rush for everyone to come back. But, you guys aren't forced to come with us." Miya added and shrugged again.

"We just think it is a better choice for you guys, and for your information, there is nothing that will persuade me to leave that community so you and the rest of the guys can have me all for yourself." Haruhi said seriously and Miya chuckled.

"And even if you kidnapped Haru, the whole community would not hesitate to hunt you down to get Haru back. She's a heroine." Miya said between chuckles.

"Pfft, nah." Haruhi said. A couple moments later, they reached the doors to Music Room #3. Hikaru was about to open the door when he felt Haruhi yanked out of his grasp. He turned around to yell at what he assumed was Miya to take Haruhi away from him just because she was annoyed, but saw it was his idiot lord. As like back in the day, he hugged Haruhi closed to his chest and was twirling in circles.

"OH HARUHI, MY DAUGHTER! IT'S OKAY, DADDY IS HERE, HE WON'T LET THAT EVIL DOPPELGÄNGER VIOLATE YOU ANYMORE! DADDY HAS MISSED YOU SO MUCH!" the former Host Club King shouted and cried in happiness. Hikaru sighed and did a weak smile, even though in most cases he would try to take Haruhi back, he let his lord hug her for once in his typical way. But what astonished Hikaru was that he referred himself as 'daddy'. Since that day, he had not used his family setting of the Host Club. Haruhi must be some sort of trigger to it, and now when he thinks about it, it had also been a long time since he raised his voice this much. Like seriously, Tamaki turned from the blonde idiot gentleman to an actual - how do you say it? - man these past two years. He showed emotion, of course, but it wasn't in the same dramatic way he always did. Once again, Haruhi is a weird trigger to it.

"Hey Tono, don't hog her!" the other twin said, panting between breaths as he approached the group. He yanked Haruhi out from Tamaki's arms, who was now screaming about that the other doppelgänger was going to molest her, and hugged her tight. "We've missed you, Haruhi!" And when that moment was over, Hunny grabbed Haruhi and started to hug her. Mori however stood beside him and patted her head.

"Haru-chan! We have all missed you so, so, so much! You're finally back!" Hunny squealed.

"Why is everyone passing Haruhi around like a hot potato?" Miya asked silently to the older twin as she watched all members pass Haruhi back and forth with hugs.

"'Cause we all care for her. Wouldn't you do the same if you finally met someone that you really care about after several years?" the twin answered and also watched the scene.

"May I ask who you are?" Miya and Hikaru nearly jumped out of their skin when they heard the voice behind them. They both turned around to see Kyouya, suspiciously eyeing Miya.

"I can ask you the same question, four-eyes." Miya said and smirked.

"I'm Kyouya Ohtori." he said flatly.

"I'm Miyaki Arukase, but just call me Miya. I don't think anyone has used proper formalities since the day the disease spread." she said. "I'm Haru's best friend and partner." Kyouya raised an eyebrow at the mention 'partner'. "No, we're not lesbos. We are companions to search, we'll explain to you guys in a minute." she added with a blank look on her face.

"OOF!" they heard Tamaki exclaim. They all turned around to see their King doubled over and holding his abdomen, while Haruhi was standing next to him gasping for air.

"I was about to pass out from lack of oxygen!" she said between breaths. "Sorry, Tamaki, but you left me no choice."

"…Since when did you kick so hard?…" he breathed out.

"Why did you kick him so lightly?" Miya asked and appeared next to her partner.

"I may think he has annoying and it has been kind of peaceful these past two years without him around, but he's still my friend, so I didn't want to hurt him to bad." Haruhi said and finally stood up straight.

"What do you mean 'not to bad'?! I think my organs are bleeding!" Tamaki shouted and stood up properly, still holding onto his stomach.

"Now you're exaggerating, Haru only kicks that hard to people she don't like or are infected." Miya chimed in.

"Can everyone just shut up so we can finish our business?" Haruhi asked and started to head for the door.

"Business? What kind of business?" Kaoru asked.

"We have an offer for all of you," Miya started as Haruhi opened the door. "you have the choice to come with us back to our community, which I highly recommend for your survival considering we have doctors, clean water, plenty of food and electricity, or you can stay here." Miya finished. "Our security is also pretty top notch, so you don't need to worry about infected people eating you in your sleep or gangs to come and kill you."

Everyone had started to walk into the Music Room, and Haruhi started to pack her weapons into her huge gym bag.

"Sounds pretty neat, huh Takashi?" Hunny asked to his giant-like cousin.

"It does." he responded.

"Kyouya, what do you think we should do?" Tamaki asked his best friend.

"Tamaki, I think the answer is pretty obvious. I mean, during winters it's especially dark, so we need some light, none of us has had a shower in ages, we never know when we could possibly need a doctor and you all know we've had some nights when those disgusting things finds us and we have had to kill them. The only problem we never had was food, because Hunny's sweet things always appears, but I think most of us can agree that we would like some proper and actual food for a change." Kyouya answered firmly. Hunny pouted slightly but then shrugged.

"Then it is settled! We have six new members to the society! The council is going to be so happy!" Miya said triumphantly. "Haru, we might even get some more advanced weapons!" At this point Haruhi stopped packing for a brief moment and faced Miya with a smile formed on her lips and a twinkle in her eyes.

"That would be so great!" Haruhi said happily. _'We could kill more of those infected while we're out hunting then! That would be great. The more we kill, the faster they will be extinct in the city!' _Haruhi thought as she continued to pack things into her bag with a smile on her face.

"She seems happy." Hikaru stated as he watched Haruhi from the distance. By now, all the former Host club members had started to pack their weapons and other supplies so they could leave.

"Well of course, the moment there's a chance she will get a new weapon then she is brimming with happiness. She wants to stay strong and independent." Miya said and packed down a few guns into a bag. "I mean, she is like the heroine of the community. Everyone looks up to her, she is smart and pretty. All the girls want to be her best friend, all the boys want her to be their girlfriend. She almost never asks for anything, and when she does, it is usually something small, so they never say no." she added with a faint smile on her face. She watched her friend showing the small former senior how to handle a certain weapon. Miya turned her head and looked out the window. Dark clouds were covering the sky. "Crap…" she muttered to herself. "Hey Haru! We should all hurry up, it seems like it is going to rain!" she called out. Haruhi turned her gaze to the windows.

"Yeah, looks like it. We should hurry up." Haruhi said and started to pack faster. Everyone heard some thunder booming softly in the distance, indicating that there will be a thunderstorm. The blonde girl noticed most of the boys' concerned looks on Haruhi, who was being oblivious and continued to pack. She raised an eyebrow. _'Why are they all so damn concerned? It's just a thunderstorm. Don't tell me they're a bunch of wimps!'_ Miya thought to herself and darted her eyes between the boys who were looking concerned, that is only the twins, Tamaki and some concern was showing on Hunny's face. "We might have to travel through the storm." Haruhi stated and zipped up the full bag she had packed. That was when she noticed the concerned faces. "What's up with you guys?"

"Haru-chan, you know, the thunder..." Hunny said softly as more thunder was heard outside.

It was silent in the room for a moment, excluding the faint patter on the windows from the rain that had started, until Haruhi started bursting out laughing. Miya started to laugh too once she realised.

"Oh my gosh! You guys really think-?! HAHAHAHA!" Miya laughed and fell to the floor, waving her legs up in the air while she held her stomach. All the boys, including Kyouya, who was only merely concerned in the first place, and Mori, who just didn't show it, were confused at this point.

"I'm not scared of thunder anymore." Haruhi stated between giggles. "I don't know if it was these gross things out there that took away my fear or if I simply grew out of it, but right now I know that thunder is one of my last problems to think about." Hikaru felt some weird mixed emotions from hearing that, he was happy that she lost her fear but he felt kind of disappointed knowing that the only weakness he knew about her was gone now.

"We're just concerned about the rain because, a) it will make us soaking wet and we could get a cold, and b) we don't want our weapons to get water in them so they get rusty." Miya added and sat up. "If we have rusty weapons, that could mean that if we need to kill something within a second, that could lower our chances of being fast and eventually kill us."

"And if we have a cold, then we will sneeze and cough. That is very bad if you're a hunter, because if you sneeze or cough around an infected, especially a Cracker, then you're doomed." Haruhi said and opened up another bag so she could pack.

"Cracker? What's a Cracker?" Tamaki asked. Both girls gaped at him and Miya lips twitched, she didn't know if she should yell, laugh or stay silent.

"You don't know what a Cracker is?" Haruhi asked and Tamaki shook his head. "Well, I can tell you," Haruhi started. "a Cracker is a person who has been infected for a long time, like a year or longer. They're horrible, they have black blood pouring out of their mouths, nose and eyes, they turn blind eventually and their eyes turn black because so much blood comes out but then their hearing sharpens. They can hear the most tiniest thing and they'll locate it and kill whatever it is. When they moan, or any sound they make, they make a weird cracking sound, that's why they're mostly known as Crackers."

"They're also known as Crackers because of their skin." Miya added.

"Skin?" Hunny repeated and cocked his head.

"Haven't you guys seen those weird cracks around the infected area on their skin? The longer you're infected, the more cracks spread on your skin. Usually a Cracker's skin is completely covered in them." Miya informed and, you guessed it, Kyouya was writing this information down in his black notebook. He hadn't really used it that much, mainly because there wasn't really any valuable information he could write down lately, but this information would be good to keep.

"Can we just continue packing now? I'd like to get out of here as soon as possible." Haruhi said and by now she had filled up half of the bag she was packing. Miya nodded and continued to pack, so did the others.

* * *

**Next chapter will be longer, I promise! But I hope you still like it so far. I hope you like it with some humour, I can't really write something without a dab of humour here and there. Trust me, the dramas will come soon enough! ;D**


	3. Chapter 3: The Move

**I am sooooo happy! I already have ten reviews on this! I'm so glad that you guys are enjoying this, because I feel like it is not that good. I do admit that it's better than my first fic, but only by a fraction. But ever since I posted the first chapter of this story, my average viewings has become from about ten visitors and forty views per day, to forty visitors and 100 views per day. :D**

**My teacher in my class has said that I have creative flare to writing (have really good grades in class for English) and I get pissed in class when our teacher says "Write one sentence for a story." and I'm like "BUT I WANT TO WRITE A PAGE!"**

**The only thing me and my friends talk about during recess and lunch is fanfics, and we have ideas for future ones. Though they constantly complain about that it is hard work and then I'm like "Bitch, I'm going to be the one thinking of the characteristics, set up the plot, the setting and write it, so shut up. All you do is give me ideas."**

**Okay, I'm gonna quit my yappin' and continue with the story.**

**WARNING: Contains Course Language (This one does.)**

* * *

They all were walking out of the gates of Ouran, each carrying a bag. Though Mori was carrying three, because he was holding two and Hunny's extra bag, and Haruhi was carrying two, because she insisted that she could carry it. The rain fell quite hard and the sound of thunder became louder and louder. Their hair was plastering onto their faces, and their clothes were sticking to their bodies. As they walked, Hikaru glanced back at the school.

"Do you think we'll go back one day?" he asked to Haruhi, mainly because she was walking right beside him.

"Why do you ask?" she responded, diverting her gaze from the road ahead to him.

"I dunno, I'm just wondering 'cause of how things are." he said. "I mean, I kind of knew that even when I graduated Ouran would come back into my life through my future kids or something. It's just special to me in a weird way." he admitted. Haruhi smiled.

"Same here." she said. "To me, it will be always special in it's own way. I heard from dad that mom had a bunch of pictures, documents and even videos from when she was in Lobelia. Though, half of them is from her time in the Zuka club." She laughed nervously at the end. "I'm pretty sure though that I'll come back one day, you can come with me then if you want."

"And why would you come back?" he asked her.

"Because gangs and other surviving groups move all the time. It is only bound to happen that one will come, settle down there for awhile and move to another place for one reason or another." she answered and adjusted her backpack.

"If you want, I can carry that." he offered and eyed the bag, who was mostly filled with firearms.

"Pfft, it's not that heavy." she responded. She turned her head to see her friend Miya, who was only a few feet behind her, talking to Tamaki, and pointed to a direction once the blonde girl noticed her. She nodded and both of them started to walk away from the group.

"Where are you two going?" Kyouya asked and stopped, as so did everyone else.

"You were not joking when you said they had slow brains." Miya commented when the girls stopped and faced the group.

"And I had to live with that every single day." Haruhi added and sighed. She locked her eyes to the boys. "I would at least think you guys would be smart enough to follow us, since you guys barely know anything about this town."

"We're going to walk through the subway tunnels. Not only does it provide shelter from the rain, but this is also a shortcut." Miya said and pointed to some stairs on the sidewalk that lead down to the earth.

"You guys better stay alert though, Crackers love to hang out in dark places like that." Haruhi said as she started to walk again.

"Then why are we going there?! Oh, my poor daughter may be attacked because it is so dark!" Tamaki exclaimed and followed Haruhi, the other hosts following closely behind.

"We'll be fine." Miya assured. "We've been through these tunnels a couple of times before."

"But what about the trains?!" he screamed. Everyone stopped for a moment and gave Tamaki a you-gotta-be-joking look. "What?" he asked. Miya rolled her eyes and Haruhi facepalmed.

"Haruhi, from now on I am going to believe whatever you told me about them. It seems so that whatever I thought you were joking at is indeed true." Miya said formally and continued to walk until she reached the stairs.

"You realise this now?" Haruhi answered and started to walk down with her friend.

"Unfortunately, yes." Miya admitted and hung her head in mock shame.

"Can somebody answer my question?" Tamaki asked and pouted.

"You truly are an idiot, Tono." the twins said simultaneously. Everyone followed the two girls down to the station, while Tamaki stood there dumbfounded.

"MOMMY! My children are being mean!" Tamaki exclaimed and ran after Kyouya.

"Last time you called me that was a year and a half ago." Kyouya said. "Though Tamaki, even I have to agree, that was a stupid question. The trains haven't probably moved since the whole ordeal started."

"You could've just told me so!" Tamaki wailed.

"Or you could've just used your brain..." Haruhi mumbled loud enough for him to hear. Tamaki overreacted once again by freezing in shock and going to his corner of woe, who retreated in fear when he noticed the spiderwebs covering the area.

"Okay, as weird as that was, we need to jump down to the train tracks to continue through the tunnels, of course." Miya told the group of men. Just as they were reaching the edge of the platform to jump down, they heard a weird cracking noise within the deep tunnel.

"It's a Cracker." Haruhi said in a whisper. She pulled out a small gun that she kept in her pocket. "Just stay ale-" Before she had a chance of finishing, a loud gunshot sound was heard inside the tunnel.

"More survivors?" Miya asked hopefully, until they heard the person speak.

"Woohoo! Talk about the best way to spend a Saturday!" a low male voice cheered.

"Goddamn, infected are stupid." another male voice, higher than the other, said.

"Seems so that we're going to have some fun…" Haruhi said seductively, a smile of the devil spreading on her's and Miya's face. Haruhi set down the backpack and the duffel bag she was carrying to the floor. She crouched down and zipped open the duffel bag as Miya set down her backpack.

"You boys be good and stay here." Miya said and pointed to the boys. "Haruhi and I has some…business to take care of." Once she finished her sentence, Haruhi pulled out two rifles from the huge duffel bag. All the men, except for Mori and Kyouya, gulped as the two girls loaded up their guns with creepy grins on their faces.

"This is going to be so much fun." Haruhi said as she and Miya jumped down the platform. The six remaining boys watched as the two girls went further in to the tunnel, darkness engulfing them. It was quiet for a couple moments, besides the cheering of the men who were in the tunnel, until…

"AH SHIT!" the man with low voice cursed before the sound of the rifle shooting came.

"AAAAH! LEAVE ME THE FUCK ALONE!" the other voice said and fast tapping was heard, probably him running.

"HAHA! HE'S ALL YOURS, MIYA!" Haruhi shouted in delight. "I'm taking care of this fucker!" More gunshot sounds came.

"FUCK YEAH!" Miya screamed with triumph. Right after that they heard more tapping, assuming it was from her. The host club watched the dark tunnel with wide eyes, including Mori and Kyouya, and saw a figure with a flashlight running towards their way. The man soon came out from the dark cave and was running on the train tracks below the platform in the dimly lit subway. The guy had dark grey eyes and light brown hair, he had a look of absolute terror on his face. The man was wearing a ragged grey t-shirt underneath his black jacket. He wore ripped dark jeans for the bottom and his sneakers were dirty. He looked no older than twenty-two. He stopped for a moment to catch a breath. "YOU CAN'T RUN FROM ME, MOTHERFUCKER!" Miya screamed somewhere in the tunnel. The man stared at the tunnel with ten times more terror on his face than he had before, then turned his head and finally saw the boys watching him.

"Help me! Plea-" the man pleaded before a bullet went through his skull, interrupting him, simultaneously at the time the gunshot sound came. The host club jumped away from the edge of the platform in fright, as they saw the man's body limply fall to the ground. Miya emerged from the dark tunnel, having a wicked smile and bloodthirsty eyes on the guy.

"Haha! Got you, you son of a bitch!" Miya said and shot the poor man's body a couple times. She then crouched down and searched the man's pockets as the six boys on the platform watched her in fright, shock and disgust. "Fuck yeah! A chocolate energy-bar and a lighter!" Miya said in delight as she took out said items from the man's pockets. She turned her head to face the tunnel, still with a wicked smile on her face. "Hey Haru! Found anything?" she called out.

"A bottle of aspirin and a six-pack of beer!" Haruhi called back.

"Sweet!" Miya said delighted and picked herself up from the floor. Shortly after Haruhi came out from the tunnel with the six-pack in her hand. They gave each other a quick high-five before they climbed on top to the platform again, so they could pack down their rifles and new six-pack into their duffel bags. There was silence until Hikaru decided to interrupt it.

"What the hell just happened?" he asked.

"Just killed off some dudes to see if they have anything useful on them." Miya said nonchalantly and opened up the packet of the energy bar.

"But aren't you supposed to find survivors and take them to your community, not find them and KILL them?" Kaoru inquired.

"We did ask them." Haruhi replied and zipped up the duffel bag.

"And then you brutally murdered them if they decline?" Tamaki ask, a look of pure disgust on his face, also scared in his mind thinking if they wanted to stay at the school he would be a dead man.

"No, those guys are just from a gang that we aren't so fond over." Miya responded and broke the food in her hands in half, giving one half to her companion. "We asked their gang if they wanted to come and join, they accepted, came to our society, tried to escape three days later with most of our medicine and ammo, we took back our stuff and kicked them out. Since then, whenever we encounter them, we're allowed to kill them." she explained quickly.

"But you don't HAVE too, right? You could've shown them some mercy." Tamaki said.

"We hate them, Tamaki. And also, think about it, how often do you get to kill someone that you hate?" Haruhi said and laughed. Everyone just dropped their jaw. _'Since when did she become so evil?'_ everyone, except Miya, thought. Though, of course only one of them had an answer, and that was the answer the self-proclaimed King made.

"IT MUST'VE BEEN THOSE SHADY TWINS!" he hollered. Kyouya smacked himself on the head.

"Uhm… We've done this since like a year and a half ago." Miya interjected. "Haru and I have killed like, fifteen or sixteen people?" she pondered.

"How's it our fault if we have not seen her since two years ago?" the twins asked, giving a glare to their lord.

"Well sorry, but that was the first explanation that popped in my head." Tamaki said and huffed.

"Anyway," Haruhi started and threw her backpack onto her back. "Shouldn't we go now?" she said and jumped down the platform.

"Yeah! Let's go!" Miya cheered and jumped off the platform as well. "There might be more jackasses further down!" The rest of the host club cautiously jumped down the platform and stepped over the dead man on the ground.

"Maybe some infected will come and eat him while his body's still fresh." Haruhi commented.

"That should satisfy them for an hour or something." Miya replied. "I really hope we find more of those jerks."

"Do you have homicidal tendencies or something?" Kaoru asked and cocked an eyebrow.

"It's something called revenge, Kaoru." Miya responded with an evil twinkle in her eyes, and how she got it right of which twin was totally pure luck. "I'm going to kill that bastard's friends one by one till they're all dead, and when he's alone, I'll kill him slowly and painfully." The two girls heard several audible gulps behind them.

"If that wasn't an answer you were looking for, Kaoru, then the answer is yes; for a certain boy." Haruhi said to the frightened twin as her blonde friend was mumbling to herself and plotting an evil plan.

"But what did he do to make her so angry?" Tamaki said and shivered from the looks of the blonde girl's demonic face.

"How do I put it in 'idiotic host' language?" Haruhi pondered for a minute. "I'll explain in better detail later, but for now I can say that what this guy did to her was a hundred times more heartbreaking than what the twins did to girls in middle-school."

"Hmm…" Miya suddenly said.

"What?" Haruhi asked.

"I wonder what a human heart and brain tastes like…" Miya thought out loud. There was a long, long, LONG silence after that, until finally a reaction came.

"WAAAAAAAH! TAKASHI! SHE'S TURNING! SHE'S GOING TO EAT US!" Hunny wailed, which the twins and Tamaki reacted with screaming and run around in circles with him. Kyouya just stood there and watched with Mori, Haruhi smacked herself in the face and Miya was being oblivious and tried to figure out a good recipe where you can eat brains.

"SHE'S NOT INFECTED YOU IDIOTS!" Haruhi shouted and the so called 'idiots' stopped.

"Then why is she wondering what brains taste like?" Tamaki asked in terror.

"Get your facts straight." Haruhi responded. "Firstly, infected don't eat brains; they eat muscles, flesh and other organs. Secondly, she's really good at making pet-food and she wants to use the bastard's brain and heart to make some dog-food to our friend's dog." Haruhi explained in the best way she could.

…Silence…

"…maybe carrots would go good…" Miya mumbled, STILL being oblivious and thinking of a recipe. Silence followed once again.

"Why pet-food out of all things?" Hikaru asked.

"Before the whole ordeal broke out- WAIT A MINUTE, shouldn't we be walking? Not standing here like goofs?" Haruhi said and started to walk, pulling Miya's arm to make her follow since she was in lala-land. The rest shrugged and followed, since they couldn't stop a determined Haruhi. They walked inside the dark tunnel, and the hosts, never being in such a dark place before, felt completely utterly blind. Haruhi, and Miya for the matter but was to busy thinking of food, had managed to build up some sort of night vision from traveling through these tunnels so many times before.

"GAAAH!"

"OW! MILORD!"

"OKAY, WHO'S THE ONE WHO IS GRABBING MY ASS?!"

Those last words came from no other than Kyouya Ohtori himself. Of course, Haruhi being the mature young adult she is, stopped and faced the group of boys behind her, they unaware of her staring. She saw them all piled up on one another, except for Mori and Hunny who stood on the side, continuing to find their way through the tunnel.

"Tamaki, you may want to remove your hand from Kyouya's butt before he kills you." Haruhi commented casually. "We have guns, ya know." Tamaki jumped up in fright, but fell backwards so he landed on his own butt. Miya, deciding finally to wake up from the world of food, blinked and watched the boys. Just then she hollered into laughter.

"THIS CAN'T BE FOR REAL! THESE GUYS DON'T EVER STOP!" she laughed and doubled over.

"They're for real, alright." Haruhi sighed. "Why are you guys tripping over each other?"

"It's so damn dark!" the twins whined and stood up.

"Then grab a flashlight!" Haruhi snapped and turned her heel.

"But how can you see?" Tamaki said and faced the girls, but instead he was facing the wall. Miya stopped laughing her ass off and Haruhi turned her head for the two hundredth time.

"Magic." they both said sarcastically and continued to walk. The twins and Kyouya scowled and rolled their eyes. Though, once again, the blonde idiot king came to the picture with the wrong impression.

"MAGIC?! OH MY GOD! MY PRECIOUS DAUGHTER IS UNDER SOME SORT OF CURSE! THIS IS NOT SOME DOING OF NEKOZAWA IS IT?!" Tamaki hollered. Kyouya pinched the bridge of his nose.

"Tamaki, if WE haven't been in contact with Haruhi the past years, then why would Nekozawa out of all people-" Kyouya started but got promptly interrupted by Miya.

"Nekozawa? Like in Umehito Nekozawa?" she asked with curious eyes. "How do you guys know him?" The host club members, with the exception of Haruhi of course, gawked at her. How did she out of all people know who he was?!

"Miya, we kind of had a weird sort of friendship with him at the time in school." Haruhi mentioned.

"WHAT?! HARU, YOU NEVER TOLD ME THAT!" Miya shouted and, only seen by Haruhi since she could see through the darkness, had eyes wide with disbelief.

"I can't exactly understand this; how do you know him, Miya?" Kyouya asked and pushed his glasses further up his nose.

"Well, because, uh, he's our, how do I put this?" Miya sputtered, trying to put the words together.

"Turns out he and his sister, Kirimi, had to run away from their mansion before their parents came home again because a bunch of infected came to attack. They had nowhere to go, so they traveled aimlessly until they found our society. Once they had both proven they were not infected, they were allowed to stay. A doctor saw his 'black magic' book and actually found some elixirs that could improve people's health. So, he kind of became a medicine maker or something." Haruhi informed. "He's turned a lot less scary than he used to be, and his fear for light has decreased." she added.

"Yeah, what Haru said." Miya said and scratched her head nervously. Haruhi once again rolled her eyes. She let her eyes wander off to the twins.

"Have you taken them out yet?" she asked.

"Taken what out?" Hikaru asked. Once again Haruhi smacked herself in the face.

"Flashlights, you moron! Kaoru has them in his bag!" she said annoyed, slightly muffled against her palm.

"Oh, I didn't even realise…" Kaoru said and opened up the bag he held to dig around. Miya once again giggled.

"You guys really are funny." she said. "I'm jealous of you Ha- HARU, WHAT HAPPENED TO YOUR NOSE?!" Miya yelled alarmed. The boys' heads jerked up.

"WHAT HAPPENED TO MY PRECIOUS DAUGHTER?! IT'S OKAY, DADDY WILL FIX IT- OW!" Tamaki cried and unfortunately hit his head against the wall.

"Nothin', I just hit my nose a bit too hard." Haruhi said and used her sleeve to wipe away the blood running out of her nose. Miya chuckled.

"Gee Haru, I haven't seen you this frustrated since you tried to teach those twelve year olds how to handle a gun." Miya commented.

"Shut up." Haruhi said with slight malice in her tone. Her eyes squinted when the light of the flashlights came. "Finally, now hand one over, Hikaru." Haruhi said and held out a hand. Hikaru tossed a flashlight and Haruhi caught it with ease. "Thanks." she mumbled.

"Can we continue with our ever so exciting journey now?" Miya said sarcastically. Haruhi agreed and they continued with their journey. All the boys followed close behind.

* * *

They had been walking for about forty minutes in pure silence until Tamaki shrieked.

"DISGUSTING! WHAT IS THAT HIDEOUS THING?!" he shouted and pointed his flashlight to the side. The rest of the group put their gaze on him, until they pointed their flashlight at the hideous thing and watched it with Tamaki. The twins, Hunny and Tamaki looked disgusted while the rest held a blank look. The so called 'hideous thing' was a body of a female, who had weird black plant-looking things sprouting out of her and growing on the walls. The plant looked dead but on odd places it would have some sort of opening dripping out a black liquid. It sprouted out at the most random places; eyes, mouth, nose, stomach, knees, you name it.

"Poor bitch." Miya said dully, followed by a nod from Haruhi.

"What is that?" Kaoru asked.

"That's what happens to you if you don't survive the first stage of the transformation." Haruhi said and shook her head.

"Stage?" Hunny innocently inquired.

"There should be around four stages of the disease, though the fourth one is yet to be seen, you need to be infected for about five-six years before you have fully entered the fourth stage." Miya said.

"The first one is the hardest stage, quite the few have died just from going through that one stage." Haruhi said and sighed. "You become really sick. You're still a functional human being, but you fall sick and become weaker by the day. You could be in a minimum of one week or maximum of one month in this stage, until you either turn in most cases or just die." she added with some sadness in her voice.

"The second stage are just regular infected, they look like any human still, with the exception of bloody mouth, but just eat people. The third stage are known as Crackers." Miya said and looked down to her feet. There was a short silence.

"Well, we should continue." Haruhi said and started to walk again for probably the millionth time that day. Miya nodded and followed her companion. The boys followed again.

_CRACK CRACK CRACK_

Oh fuck.

Crackers.

"It's a whole pack of them!" Miya hissed after she had looked around the corner, where the Crackers were.

"Must be our lucky day." Haruhi said and dumped her duffel bag on the ground. She zipped it open and hastily pulled out the rifles they used earlier, and a few firearms plus a shotgun.

"Who thinks they can handle the shotgun?" Haruhi asked and loaded said item.

"Me!" Tamaki said and raised his hand.

"Best joke I've heard all day." Miya chuckled silently.

"Here you go, Kyouya." Haruhi said and gave the loaded shotgun to the raven haired boy.

"Thank you." he said politely. Tamaki pouted. Haruhi and Miya quickly, but quietly, tossed each remaining man with a handgun. The boys, except Kyouya and Mori who seemed unaffected, could not lie if somebody asked them if they were scared, they were basically terrified. Haruhi noticed this, Hunny was clinging to Mori, Tamaki was shaking and his eyes even twitched while the twins were just nervously holding their hands.

"Don't be a bunch of wimps," Haruhi said. "Miya and I can take care of them, just watch our backs, 'kay?" she said. They nodded. "Now, Miya, are you ready to have some more fun?" Haruhi asked with a smirk on her face.

"You know I am always ready." Miya said with a mirror image smirk. The two girls turned the corner, the rifles in their hands. It was quite silent for a few moments, until a loud gunshot was heard, followed by several loud, cracking roars.

"OH SHIT!" Haruhi shouted in alarm. That's when the guys turned around the corner themselves. Though the only ones who actually were attacking was Mori and Kyouya. The other just stood there frozen from the scene. There was probably twenty of those gross things, and every single one of them were more terrifying than how Haruhi had described them earlier. All their eyes were pitch black and the black liquid, who had once upon time been red blood, was pouring out of their eyes, nose, mouth, fingers; anywhere there was a possible opening. Their skin had this weird black crack pattern on it, and sometimes you could see that something was starting to grow out of those cracks. Whenever they would scream or roar, the black blood would splatter out. It was such a grotesque scene that Hunny felt like throwing up and Kaoru had to slap his hand over Hikaru's mouth before the older twin cursed out in a shout. Tamaki… Well, he was doing his best to prevent himself from fainting.

"COME ON, YOU MORONS! WE GAVE YOU GUNS FOR A REASON!" Miya shouted and shot a Cracker through the head.

"LET GO OF MY GUN!" Haruhi shouted at another Cracker, who was trying to pull the rifle out of her hands in an animal-like way. Now Hunny sprung to life.

"DON'T HURT HARU-CHAN!" he cried and leaped onto the Cracker's back, shooting it through the head.

"Thanks Hunny." Haruhi said quickly before she shot another Cracker.

"No problem!" he said and jumped onto another's back, doing the same process of shooting it in the head. Haruhi inched closer to the twins and Tamaki, while she shot some Crackers' brains out.

"I suggest the three of you do something, before these things kills you." she said and shot another. For some reason, they kept coming. Well, Crackers does have tendency to go to dark places like this, maybe just a bunch of them from other areas heard them and are coming.

The first one to muster up some courage was the older of the twins. He took a deep, but quick, breath, aimed the gun and shot a Cracker. Right through the head. Between the eyes.

"Nice shot." Haruhi commented.

"Um… Thanks…" he sputtered. Haruhi did a quick playful wink then ran off to shoot off some more heads. She ran off to her friend, shooting several in the heads in the process.

"Where are all these things coming from?!" Miya said and shot, and shot, and shot…

"They're hearing us from above…" Haruhi said softly, reloading her rifle. "Around that corner over there, there's a station. And that station leads to that part of the city. Our gunshots are echoing through the tunnels, up the stairs and then they can hear it, especially the Crackers with their advanced hearing." Haruhi explained and pointed to another corner, which several infected were coming out of.

"But when are they going to stop?! I've already killed like, thirty of them!" Miya said and reloaded her rifle while Haruhi shot some infected.

"This is a very crowded area of the city." Haruhi reasoned.

"You out of all people should know that." Miya spat as a small smirk played on Haruhi's lips. "I see the twins are finally doing something." Miya added. Haruhi took a quick glance at the twins and saw them in full on action, helping each other out.

"That's good, though I think Tamaki has fainted on the inside." Haruhi said, and Miya replied with a nod. "I should probably round the corner there, and try to block the staircase so they won't come."

"You sure? I mean, it has a risk if you go alone." Miya said, showing worry in her eyes. Meanwhile, Haruhi rolled her eyes.

"Oh please, I have done a lot more risk taking stuff than that." Haruhi said and watched for an opening. "Gotta go." she said and ran once she found an opening.

"But Haru-" Miya tried and stretched out her hand, but only grasped air.

"Where's Haruhi going?!" Kyouya called out.

"She's going to try to stop the numbers increasing." Miya called back.

"AND YOU LET HER GO ALONE?!" Tamaki shouted. Finally he does something… "SHE WILL GET HERSELF KILLED!"

"Tamaki, calm down. This is Haru we're talking about. She has done a whole bunch of things that no one else ca-"

_KA-BOOM_

The Crackers instantly started to follow the source of the loud explosion, leaving the group of survivors. Everyone stared with wide eyes at direction the explosion was heard, which happens to be the same corner Haruhi went around earlier...

A few cracked roars were heard, and then...

_KA-BOOM_

Silence…

Not a single sound. Not a moan, a groan or anything from an infected. Just pure peaceful silence…

Miya did start to worry about her friend a little, while the rest of the boys were ten times more worried.

Then they heard a cough.

And soon came the girl around the corner, coughing. She was covered in grime, dirt, blood and other things that the rest couldn't wrap their finger around of what it was.

"I totally forgot about the pocket-bombs that Katsu made. I found them at the bottom of my backpack and used them to kill those shitheads." she coughed out. "Though, I accidentally breathed in some of the dirt…"

Relief was flooded over the group.

"That's Haru for you." Miya said and crossed her arms. "Is the entrance blocked?"

"Yeah, so we'll be fine for awhile." Haruhi said and tried to wipe off some of the dirt she had gotten on her shirt.

"Then we shall continue!" Miya said and pumped a fist in the air. She faced the boys. "You guys may want to keep those, you know, just in case." Miya added. The boys simply nodded. They continued their journey, and Haruhi tried her best to get the dirt off her.

"I seriously need to take a shower once I come home." Haruhi said and spat in her hands, some sort of way to wash off the grime off her hands.

"Yeah, you do." Miya said. "But, meh, dirt doesn't harm ya." The group walked past the dark station, who was now covered with burned bodies, and continued to walk through the dark tunnels.

The boys were purely shocked of how well Haruhi was taking it. It's just, well... She just caused TWO EXPLOSIONS in a subway-station, SHOT off the heads of several infected and who knows what else she has done, yet she brushes it off like it is normal. Well, maybe that is her normal. I she even scared of anything? Of course she is scared of something, otherwise she would be like a robot. But what is she scared of?

* * *

They had all been walking for three hours. THREE HOURS. The boys felt like they needed to sit down… They had walked past several stations, and luckily they didn't encounter any infected or the 'assholes', as Miya referred them. They arrived to a station, which they probably would walk past, that had the lights working and it looked pretty decently clean than the ones they had past. But, the girls shocked them, because they were now climbing onto the platform.

"We'll go up that staircase over there, then we have about two streets to travel before we reach the gates." Haruhi said as the rest climbed up.

"Finally, we're almost home!" Miya said and stretched. "I'm practically starving..." Haruhi sighed.

"Let me guess, you want me to cook ramen noodles again?" Haruhi asked. Miya nodded happily and walked off while whistling a cheerful tune.

"Ramen noodles?" Hikaru asked.

"Yeah, that's been her favourite food since the outbreak happened." Haruhi said and followed her friend. "She especially likes it when I cook it for some reason."

"Of course she loves it when you cook it," Hikaru said.

"It's made by Haruhi, after all." Kaoru finished.

"It's nothing, it's just noodles with some soup." Haruhi said and started to walk up the stairs. The twins shrugged. The group went up the staircase, and came to a deserted street, who used to be a commoner neighbourhood.

"This place is…empty." Tamaki stated and looked around.

"No shit, Sherlock." Miya said. "Anyway, we'll cross that bus over there and then go down the street till we come to the gates." she informed and pointed to a bus at the end of the street, laying on it's side and covering any access of passing.

"But how do we cross it?" Hunny asked sweetly.

"You'll figure it out." Haruhi said. "People climb up on their on ways. I bet you could just jump up, Hunny." **(Note: You know how high Honey can jump thanks to his karate skills.)**

"Ah yeah! You're right!" Hunny squealed. And that's what he did, he took stance, ran and swiftly jumped up on to the bus. At least he still knows his judo moves and such. And Mori took Haruhi's duffel bag for when he leaped up.

"Okay, we got two people up. Miya, give me a boost." Haruhi asked. Miya obliged and took her stance in front of the bus. Haruhi put one foot on Miya's hand, and Miya helped her to push herself up.

"Next?" Miya asked. The twins climbed up next, then Tamaki, Kyouya and Miya last, who got pulled up by Haruhi. Once on top of the bus, they jumped down to the ground on the other side. Down the street, they could see huge gates conjoined with these high walls. They approached the gates, and the boys noticed a little speaker on the side above a small button. Haruhi went to the little speaker, and pressed on the button. The speaker did a couple static noises before a voice came through it.

"Hello?" a male voice said. It sounded like a teenager's.

"Hey Hiro, can you open the gates?" Haruhi said.

"Haruhi!" he said relieved. "You're like an hour late from your usual time! I was starting to get worried…"

"Geez you sound like dad." Haruhi muttered. "Anyway, can you just open the gate? Miya and I have had a LONG day, you can never believe what we found."

"What, what, what?!" he asked excited, like a little kid on Christmas.

"We found six survivors, a whole bunch of weapons, medicine and we killed like sixty infected!" Miya butted in with a playful smirk on her face.

"SIX SURVIVORS?!" Hiro shouted. "THE GATES WILL BE OPEN ANY MINUTE!" he said and the static sound of the speaker came again. Moments later, the huge gates opened and boy who seemed to be around the same age of Haruhi bounced out. He had black hair and friendly grey eyes. "You never seem to stop surprising me, Haru!" he said.

"I'm not that full of surprises." Haruhi muttered and started to walk through the gates. "Though here's a surprise for you, all of these survivors are friends of mine from high-school." Hiro's jaw dropped.

"You're joking!" he said.

"Nope, true as a whistle." Miya said and nudged his arm while walking in. "Now do your job and send them to the medical tent."

"Will do, ma'am." Hiro said and jokingly saluted.

"What do they mean by 'medical tent'?" Hunny asked innocently. Hiro faced the group of boys the moment the girls left.

"Oh, the medical tent is like our medical clinic. Don't worry, we send all of our newest survivors there for just a check up." he explained.

"What do you mean by 'check up'?" Kyouya inquired.

"We've had survivors come in who are infected, so we do these check ups to see of they are or not. It doesn't matter if you say you're not, sometimes people can be without even realising it." Hiro responded. "Now just come with me, it'll only take like ten minutes each." he said and gestured them to follow when he started to walk inside. They followed and were somewhat amazed of the inside. It looked like any other town, like nothing had ever struck the area within the walls. Everything looked…normal. Mostly normal, there was some tents here and there, some of them selling items, such as food, clothes, medicine, but nothing abnormal. They came to this large tent who had a sign saying 'medical tent'. They walked in to be greeted by a female in her thirties, having long blonde hair tied up in a ponytail and sky blue eyes. She wore a lab coat of some sort, and she had a pair of rectangular glasses sitting on her nose.

"Ah, Hiro, what can I help you with?" she asked with an angelic voice.

"Hey Dr Sukazi. I didn't know you had the medical tent shift today, or if you had it all..." Hiro said slightly nervous.

"I may be one of the best doctors in Westford, but I still share my fair share of shifts in this clinic, or to be exact, tent." she said with a slight giggle. "So why are you here? Does it have something to do with those six gentlemen behind you?" she asked.

"Yeah, they are. These are the six new survivors that Haru found today, they just need a quick check up." Hiro said and gestured a hand at them.

"My god, Haruhi never cease to amaze me." she said. "Okay then, Hiro, you can go back to your job at the gate. You six boys just stay here with me." Hiro said his goodbye and left, while the six boys just stood. "Okay, so who wants to go first?"

"ME!" Tamaki shouted and raised his hand high up in the air.

"Somebody's enthusiastic, eh? Anyway, just come and sit here and take your shirt off. I promise I won't bite." she said and pointed to a blue plastic chair. The blonde prince simply obeyed.

* * *

**Sorry, for the weird ending of the chapter! xD Hope at least the length of this one will satisfy your needs. You know what's weird? I don't really like reading/watching sci-fi or fantasy (except if it's zombie-related, I mean, who doesn't love that?) stuff but I enjoy writing it, weird right? Anyway, I hope you guys will still like this, we're still pretty far off from the climax of the story. :3**


	4. Chapter 4: PartejPep

**OH MY GOD! I AM SO SORRY! IT HAS BEEN AGES SINCE I UPDATED (I HAVE A VERY GOOD REASON THOUGH, SO LISTEN UP)!**

**Okay, so most of you might not know this but in my school we have an iPad program for year sevens, who can keep their own school-provided iPad for a year. But with this iPad comes rules; like you can't clear your history, go on inappropriate sites and the like. And well I...**

**...I accidentally broke one of the rules... (****_KEY WORD: _****_accidentally_****)**

**...and I lost my iPad for a week. But after the weekend the teachers changed the rules (more like doing different punishments, due to the inconvenience). So I have my iPad back earlier, I just need to spend my recess and lunch to write lines tomorrow. (^ ^;)**

**One of the rules is to have all personal apps closed during school, and I forgot to close my FanFiction app in the morning, so my teacher found out and took it.**

**If you are wondering why you should care if my iPad is gone (which I though you would figure out why along the way of explaining) then I'll tell you. I need my iPad because I write all my fanfics on it, save them there and post them up to FanFiction through it. So if that is gone, then no updates...**

**Anyway, now you know my reasoning and I'll post this useless chapter.**

**Note: The place I made up has a last minute made up name, so sorry if it is sucky. xD**

**WARNING: Contains Course Language.**

* * *

"Nothing feels better than a nice, hot shower after a day of rough hunting!" Haruhi exclaimed and dried her hair with a towel.

"Mmhmm." Miya agreed. The two girls were in their apartment, which they also shared with Ryoji 'Ranka' Fujioka, Haruhi's father, and the two of them were sitting in Haruhi's bedroom. The apartment they lived in was bigger than Haruhi's old apartment, with three bedrooms, one bathroom, a kitchen and living/dining room. Ever since the infection spread, there was nothing that was used as money. Basically, people would trade items, and since Haruhi and Miya both worked as hunters, not to mention they are the best ones, they get to live in one of the best apartments in the community, aka Westford. "Haruhi, since it's Sunday tomorrow, and we don't go out to the outer city, can we please go to PartejPep today?" Miya asked with pleading eyes. PartejPep was a place in Westford that people the ages between 16 and 24 could come and have some fun. You know, dancing, drinking (alcohol, if you were 18 or older) and socialising. It was only open on Fridays and Saturdays, and the two girls worked on those days, and they would be too tired to go when they came back.

"I guess we can… Maybe we could bring the guys…" Haruhi said absentmindedly.

"OOOH! YES, YES, YES, YES!" Miya squealed and tugged Haruhi's arm. "It would be so cool if I could do the Mistletoe with one of them!" Miya said with stars in her eyes. The Mistletoe is something that happens every single Saturday at PartejPep, and that's when the hosts of the party would spot a 'couple' and they plus the audience would encourage the 'couple' to kiss.

"You would just love that, wouldn't you?" Haruhi said, stating it more than questioning.

"It would be like a dream come true…!" Miya said and flopped onto her back on the bed.

"You've only known them for a day," Haruhi said and threw her towel to a chair in the corner of the room. "If anyone should say that, it's me. But you know I'm not in for the lovey-dovey stuff like that." she added.

"You're such a bore, you know that!" Miya said and playfully hit Haruhi's arm.

"Fine, I'm boring." Haruhi 'admitted'. "I think we should pick up the guys now, they all should be done with their check ups." she said and stood up.

"WOOHOO! PARTEJPEP, HERE WE COME!" Miya shouted with glee and jumped up.

"Sometimes I wonder how we're best friends…" Haruhi mumbled and walked out of the room.

"Oh Haru! Why are you so mean?" Miya whined with puppy dog eyes and followed her friend.

"I'm not mean, I'm just blunt." she backfired. Yes, Haruhi had realised that she is blunt, but she couldn't be bothered changing that fact.

"You're joking, I never knew that." Miya said sarcastically and rolled her eyes.

* * *

"Okay, that felt…" Hikaru started as he and the rest of the club walked out of the medical tent.

"…awkward." Kaoru finished.

"I didn't think it was that bad." Hunny said and sucked on his lollipop, that he got from the doctor before he told her his age and she nearly fainted in shock.

"Hn." Mori grunted in agreement.

"But," Tamaki interjected. "What do we do now?" he asked.

"I'm not sure, nobody gave us any specific instructions of where to go afterwards." Kyouya said.

"So what, are we going to stand here like idiots now?" the twins asked in unison.

"It doesn't take much to make you guys look like idiots." the oh so familiar voice interrupted. The boys looked up to see Haruhi a few feet away, with her trustworthy blonde companion next to her. She had now, of course, changed her outfit. She was wearing a basic light-grey tank top, now revealing that she grew from an A-cup to a respectable B-cup, black shorts that stopped a little above mid-thigh and black combat boots for shoes. Her hair was still slightly damp, but mostly dry, and was combed straight, framing her face. "The supplies we had have been put away to its rightful place, so you guys don't need to worry about them. And since I feel like being nice, and because you are my friends, you will be allowed to sleep at our apartment instead of the building where most new survivors stay at."

"Also known as 'The House of Newbies'." Miya added.

"We get to stay at your place?!" the two blondes and twins shouted in unison with pure bliss.

"For the time being." Haruhi corrected. But even with that said, the twins and the blondes did their happy dance, Hikaru and Kaoru did a sly comment and Tamaki started to chase them in circles while Hunny shrugged and went on his cousin's shoulders. When the trio stopped running, Miya decided to speak up.

"Since Haru and I had such a rough day, we decided we'd give each other a little treat." Miya said happily.

"Is it cake?" Hunny asked.

"No, we're going to-" Haruhi started but got interrupted by her blonde friend.

"PARTEJPEP!" Miya screamed loudly, jumping up and down.

"What the hell's that?" the twins asked together, both mimicking each others' actions of raising an eyebrow. Haruhi sighed.

"It's a place where people around our age go and party on the weekends." Haruhi explained. "We've been there once before and she loved it." Haruhi said and used her thumb to point at Miya, who was still dancing and jumping with joy. She grabbed her friend's arm and started to pull her to a random direction. "Let's just go." Haruhi said determined while Miya squealed. The hosts quickly followed, wondering what this 'PartejPep' place could be.

* * *

Miya just wouldn't stop jumping… Then she ran out of energy and Mori had to carry her over his shoulder, yet she was still squealing with delight of going.

The building looked plain on the outside, only some noise from music inside indicating life. They arrived at the door, which Haruhi was about to open. Once it was open, they could see all the life inside. It was like a nightclub and the place was packed!

"We have about sixty survivors that are between the ages of 16 and 24, so this place is pretty full on weekends, since most people do like to party." Haruhi said as she walked in, the hosts following, gawking.

"Haru-chan!" a girl called from a table with her friends. The girl had dark-violet eyes and dark red hair, or maybe it was just the room's dim lighting that made it look so dark.

"Yuri." Haruhi said and approached the girls. The boys, plus the dazed Miya, watched from afar, as Haruhi greeted the girls then one of them told a joke, which they all giggled to.

"My daughter finally has some girlfriends!" Tamaki said proudly with clasped hands brought up close to his face.

"Hey, what about me?" Miya said behind him.

"In this scenario you don't count." Kyouya said flatly to her, as the used-to-be prince's eyes shimmered with happiness to watch his 'little girl' have fun with girls. Miya huffed and started to walk away to the bar, she's eighteen after all. Haruhi said a quick goodbye and left the group of girls and joined the boys once more.

"Haru-chan, who was that?" Hunny asked innocently.

"Oh them?" Haruhi said and glanced back at the girls. "Just some friends I have, they were all pretty shocked to see me here tonight but not Miya, but I told her that she probably went to the bar. I usually can't be bothered to come here since I work so much."

"I thought you told us before that you guys have the same schedules?" Kyouya asked plainly. "How's it so then she come here more often than you?"

"Well, for starters, that girl has way more energy than me. Secondly, we have the same hunting schedules, but I have more small jobs to do around the community than her." Haruhi explained. "Let's not worry about that for now and just have some fun, 'kay?" she said and smiled before she walked onto the dance floor to dance. The hosts could only say that they were…astonished. They never thought they would hear her say something like that. To worry about things later and just have fun. One certain pair of twins likes that new change a bit.

"Dibs on dancing with her first!" Kaoru shouted and ran to the dance floor.

"Kaoru! Wait up!" Hikaru said and followed his brother. The king stood there fuming.

"NOT ONE OF YOU TWO DEMONIC TWINS ARE GOING TO DIRTY HER!" he shouted and followed the twins. Hunny and Mori already had scurried off because some girl came and offered some cake, which Hunny could not refuse to. Kyouya sighed and started to walk around the crowded area.

* * *

Haruhi was on the dance-floor, dancing plainly; swinging her hips and bopping her head to the beat while doing faint movements with her arms.

"What kind of dance is that?" Kaoru asked as he watched Haruhi do her little dance.

"Here, dancing is not something that is elegant, or good. Here it is just to plainly have fun." Haruhi responded and spun around to face the twin. "There's no pressure here. No rules, just fun." she added and smiled.

"No rules, eh?" Hikaru said as he approached his brother and Haruhi.

"Well, there's a few but that's stuff like no violence and such." Haruhi deadpanned.

"So am I allowed to do this?" Hikaru asked, and before Haruhi could even blink, she was being dipped down by the older twin. Some people were giving looks out of curiosity and some were giving teasing expressions around them.

"Technically yes, but-" Haruhi started but interrupted when Hikaru pulled her up once again.

"No buts, Haruhi!" Hikaru said teasingly and spun her.

"You're acting a bit like Tamaki, you know." Haruhi muttered.

"I'm not an idiot like him." Hikaru said back, which Haruhi rolled her eyes in response.

"Yeah, yeah." Haruhi answered back and yanked her hand away from him. "Trust me, the last thing a guy could impress me with is to act like a gentleman."

"Did it ever?" Hikaru asked and rolled his eyes.

"It could've, but now it's down the drain!" Haruhi said, and pointed down to the floor. She then glanced around with curious eyes. "Eh? Where's Kaoru?" she asked and looked around. Hikaru glanced to his side and noticed his twin's absence, and he started to look around.

"That's weird, he was here only a second ago. Some chick must've asked to dance with him or something." Hikaru reasoned and shrugged. Haruhi shrugged also in response.

* * *

"An' then I told him that he could've shoved it up his ass!" Miya exclaimed and raised her bottle of beer in her hand. She took a big swig before she lowered her bottle and faced the person beside her with the most serious look possible on her face, which didn't look that serious in her drunken state. "I'm sowey, but which one were ya now again?"

"I'm Kaoru." the red-head beside her said.

"Ah yeah! Kaoru!" she said and nodded. "Haru said somethin' 'bout you bein' the more sensible twin… Is dat true?"

"Everyone says so, so I guess I am." he responded and took a sip of his beer, that Miya bought for him without asking.

"Why did ya come an' sit wid me?" she slurred, and spun in her chair like a child.

"Because my brother seemed to be having fun with Haruhi, so I left them both alone." he said and shrugged. He then turned to face the drunk girl. "Besides, you seemed like you needed someone to control your alcohol intake." he commented as the girl hit her head against the bar.

"Stop usin' fancy words! You're makin' my head spin!" she said and clutched her head. He raised an eyebrow.

"How am I using 'fancy' words?" he asked as he placed his elbow on the bar and rested his chin on his palm.

"I don't know; 'alcohol', 'intake', you don't hear them everyday!" she mumbled.

"I think you're just too drunk to remember." Kaoru said to her and gazed into his quarter-empty beer bottle. She lifted her head up and spun in her chair again to face the dance floor.

"Dis song is so booooorrrriiiing…" Miya sighed.

"This is the first time I hear music, besides Tono's piano, that I've heard in a couple of years, so I don't really mind." Kaoru said. Miya nodded and continued to watch the people dance for a few minutes.

"…Let's dance together." she said. Kaoru glanced at her.

"What?" he asked. She turned to face him.

"Just like I said, let's dance together! We're both bored, wasted - at least I am - and we look like idiots just sitting here!" she exclaimed and waved her arms.

"I'm pretty sure that everything you said, except being bored, only concerns you." he said and took another sip. "But, eh, why not?" he added and stood up from his seat.

"Let's go!" she shouted and pulled his arm out to the dance floor but stopped after two steps. She quickly whipped around to the bar to face the bartender. "Can you make music requests?"

"If we have it on the laptop in the back, then yeah." the brunette male bartender answered.

"Do ya mind if have a look?" Miya asked back. He merely shrugged. "Thank you!" she said and started to stumble towards the back door, leaving Kaoru standing there. He was about to walk away when the bartender spoke to him.

"Kid, can you go with her? The last thing we need is something broken 'cause of a drunk moron." he said and grabbed a couple of empty bottles off from the counter, probably the bottles that Miya downed earlier. Kaoru rolled his eyes and followed the direction the drunk girl went off to. He followed her until he came up to a door having a sign saying 'control room' on it.

"Girl has taste!" he heard said drunk girl squeal inside. He turned the doorknob and walked inside to a dark room, where the only light came from a laptop screen in the corner. He walked up behind her and peeked over her shoulder. He noticed that she was going through list of songs that was on the laptop.

"What song are you gonna-"

"KYAAAAAAAAAAAHH!"

_WHACK_

Kaoru could only describe with two words of the feeling he was having on his left cheek, and that was ABSOLUTE PAIN. So he did what any other person would do, scream in pain and yell at the person why they did it.

"You scared me half to death! I just did what any other sane girl who knows how to protect themselves would do if a stalker walked up behind them!" Miya exclaimed, slightly slurred.

"There's stalkers here?" Kaoru asked as he rubbed his cheek.

"Technically not… but you can never be too careful!" she said and placed one hand on her hip and the other onto the keyboard, which made the loud music outside stop and a more soft one come. And poor Kaoru, who has not heard a girl squeal a fangirl-squeal for so many years and he was about to go deaf from Miya hearing the song, plus all the other girls that were doing fangirl-squeals outside.

"OH MY GOD! IT'S _Wedding Dress_ BY _Taeyang_!" she squealed. "I JUST LOVE THIS SONG!" **[A/N: This song played on my phone while I was typing, so I decided to use it! xD]**

"Before I complain about me losing my hearing on my left ear, I want to ask you just why you had to squeal like that." Kaoru asked.

"IT'S LIKE SUPER-SWEET!" she squealed out and grabbed Kaoru's arm. "WE SHOULD TOTALLY GO OUTSIDE AND DANCE!" she screamed and pulled Kaoru out of the room.

"I'll be deaf by the end of the night…" Kaoru sighed. She pulled him out in a haste, and immediately ran over to a group of other squealing girls once they reached the dance floor, that was covered with couples dancing. Slow, fast, perfect to the beat, didn't matter, they all were dancing together.

"My god, she's wasted…" Kaoru muttered to no one in particular.

"You mean Miya?" a voice said behind him. Kaoru turned his head to see Hiro from earlier. "She's not wasted, she's only buzzed. Don't worry, you'll see how she is when she is truly wasted." Kaoru merely blinked in boredom, but mentally groaned in annoyance.

"She's really annoying." Kaoru said. Hiro gave a small chuckle.

"That's another thing to praise Haruhi about, she needs to deal with that girl 24/7." he said.

"How I wonder." Kaoru commented.

"Is Haruhi here anyway?" Hiro asked and looked around.

"Yeah, she's here." Kaoru said and stared down at his feet, this was a slightly awkward conversation.

"There may be a chance she'll be the Mistletoe victim," Hiro stated awhile later. "She seems to be pretty comfortable around your twin." he added. Kaoru looked up and followed the direction Hiro was pointing to. He saw that his brother and Haruhi were dancing together just normally, like friends would do. They were having a small conversation between one another, smiles of amusement and giggles coming here and there.

"That's good." Kaoru said and smiled.

"Yeah, it's not often you see her like that." Hiro said and started to look around again. "Where's that stupid clock?" Kaoru heard him mutter. He then cursed out loudly, "SHIT! Is it that late already?!" Kaoru turned to lock at the clock that hung on the wall at the far end of the room. It read 10:35.

"It's not that late." Kaoru stated simply.

"For me it is, I'm back on duty in 25 minutes!" Hiro exclaimed. "That reminds me!" He ran off to Haruhi and Hikaru, and said something to Haruhi. Kaoru observed and saw that Haruhi's eyes grew wide while Hikaru looked utterly confused.

* * *

"That's just plain stupid." Haruhi commented.

"Well, we didn't have your genius mind with us." Hikaru grinned, which Haruhi only sighed in response.

"Haruhi!" Said girl whipped her head back to face the boy who was running towards them through the crowd, which was Hiro.

"Ah, Hiro, what's up?" Haruhi asked casually.

"Haruhi… Do you even know what time it is?!" he asked slightly panicked.

"No, why?"

"It's 10:37 right now! And remember, it's _Saturday_." Hiro said with a tone, so she could be reminded of something. Haruhi's eyes grew wide.

"Oh crap! I totally forgot!" she exclaimed panicked. She turned to face Hikaru again, who had a puzzled look on his face. "Um, Hikaru, I kinda have to go…" she said nervously.

"Why?" he asked after seeing her nervous look.

"Why? Oh, she just has to go to bed early! That's why! Yes, she's really busy tomorrow, so she needs to be up nice and early!" Hiro interjected nervously.

"Yeah, so…" Haruhi glanced around. "Sorry, gotta go! See ya tomorrow!" she said and quickly darted towards the door. "Make sure Miya doesn't drink so much that she doesn't remember where we live!" she called over her shoulder before she slammed the door shut. Hikaru stared at the direction she had left at, slightly hurt of how she just left him like that.

"Holy mustard bottle!" Hiro exclaimed. "I'm back on duty in twenty minutes! See ya later!…uh, Hikaru right?" Hiro said quickly. Before Hikaru could respond, Hiro went for the door as well.

"What a shame." Hikaru heard his brother's voice say.

"Yeah, I guess…" Hikaru sighed out. "Let's just find Tono and pest him or something." Hikaru said boringly.

"'Kay." Kaoru responded and followed his brother on the search for their lord. _'It would be nice if something happened, like that Mistletoe thing…' _Kaoru thought disappointed. Of course, the one who got the spotlight was Tamaki, but the girl fainted in his arms before he even brushed his lips onto hers.

* * *

"The wheels on the bus go *hic* round and round, *hic* round and round *hic*, round and round, the wheels on the bus *hic* go round and round *hic* all day looooooong~!" Miya sang drunkly. The Host Club were walking on the dark empty streets in the community to get to Miya's and Haruhi's apartment. Miya was to drunk to walk, so Mori was carrying her over his shoulder, for the second time that day.

"Can you please stop singing? It's annoying!" Hikaru whined as the girl continued to sing like a broken record.

"I'll stop *hic* when I'm back home!" she said and pointed an accusing finger on Kaoru, which she thought was Hikaru. The twins rolled their eyes simultaneously.

"Which way now?" Kyouya asked as they reached a crossing. Miya lifted her head and looked down a street.

"*hic* That way!" she said and pointed down towards the street before she dropped her head down again. "Walk down there and enter the building with a blue door… Then go to the third floor…" she muttered.

"Okay! Blue door!" Tamaki said determined and ran down the street to find it. "FOUND IT!" he called out.

"Whoopee!" Miya exclaimed sarcastically. She reached for her pocket and pulled out a key. "Here… Catch…" she murmured and threw the key towards Tamaki. He (ungracefully) caught it. It had a small 24 on the side. "That's the apartment number…now can we go…before…I fall asleep…" she said sleepily before a snore erupted.

"Eh? What happened to her energy?" Hunny asked innocently, blinking with his brown orbs.

"Don't know." Mori responded and shrugged, with the snoring blonde girl on his shoulder. Tamaki blinked twice, before he opened the door and walked inside to find the apartment. They walked up a couple of flights of stairs, until they reached the floor with the destination they were looking for. Just as Kyouya was reaching for the doorknob, the drunk blonde girl sprung to life.

"Whatever you do, do NOT enter Haru's room! She'll snap your neck otherwise!" Miya said and narrowed her eyes.

"I don't remember Haru-chan being a heavy sleeper… She never seemed to be too angry when we came over and woke her up during weekend mornings." Hunny said. Panic flickered momentarily in Miya's eyes as she watched the small former senior say his statement. She knew that Haruhi had complained that these boys invaded her privacy, but to come so far as WAKING her up in the morning?

"Well…uh…she just needs her sleep, she is pretty busy after all!" Miya sputtered. "Um…dude, can you let me down?" Miya asked to Mori, and he immediately obeyed. Once she was on her feet, she snapped the key away from Tamaki's hands. Seems that all the alcohol seeped out during her quick power-nap. She opened the door, marched down the hall and opened another door. "Here's the living area, where you guys will be sleeping. There's five futons in the closet, but one of them's for Ranka, he usually stores it in that closet. Some of you guys have to share." she said as the boys stepped in. "Leave the window open, we need some fresh air to come in. If you need to use the bathroom, it's across the hall." she added and pointed to a door. "My bedroom is here, Ranka's is across from mine, and Haru's is besides mine. G'night." she said as she went to a door, slipped in and closed the door after her. She opened it a moment later and poked her head out. "If you want any food, there's some in the kitchen over there." she stated and pointed to the small kitchen by the door. "Night." she said again and went back inside as she closed the door after her.

The men watched with slight curiosity as the girl did her orders and left, and then they all decided to go to sleep. They walked over to the closet in the living area and took out four futons. The twins of course agreed to share one, and Mori and Hunny decided to share one. Tamaki and Kyouya got a futon each, much to the latter's relief.

_K-chak_

"How tiring…" a familiar male voice said from the front door before a yawn was heard. Two seconds later a man with short light brown hair entered, expression surprised. He looked like to be around his late thirties. "Boys?" he questioned for a moment. "Boys!" he exclaimed in glee and ran to hug all the boys in bone crushing hugs, all of them except Tamaki. Which he gave a piercing glare to.

Said boys were staring in confusion at the man who was gushing out of how much he had missed them.

"Who are you?" Tamaki asked unconsciously.

The man gave a glare to Tamaki, before his face softened when he saw the confusion on their faces.

"You can't probably tell who I am, since I am wearing proper men's clothing and with my cut hair." he laughed. "But it's me, Ryoji Fujioka!" he said and raised his arms for effect. "But I still like to be referred as Ranka."

"Oh…" the twins said and blinked.

"Ranka-san!" Honey cheered and glomped the older man.

"Hi Mitsukuni." Ranka replied and ruffled his hair. "Anyway, we should catch up more in the morning, I really want some sleep." Ranka said and went to the closet. He opened it up and pulled out the remaining rolled up futon before he left the room. "Goodnight, boys!"

"Goodnight, Ranka-san!" Tamaki said to him as the man walked down the hallway, which Ranka responded with yet another glare and Tamaki went to his corner of woe.

"Sleep would be the best option now." Kyouya said and everyone agreed.

* * *

**Yes, I know useless chapter. :P But eh, better things will come in the future chapters. **

**Oh and why I picked "The wheels on the bus" song was because my brother (he's three) came in and was randomly singing it so I though it would be funny to have Miya singing it while drunk. (＞∇＜****)**

**Okay, well, see you guys later! **


	5. Chapter 5: Dark Past

**Oh my god... I'm sorry for the late update, but you may have to expect these in the future.**

**I was totally stuck on this chapter, but I think I have a good idea what's going to happen next, I just need to write the chapter first. ^^ **

**Some bits were quite rushed, so sorry if it isn't the best.**

**WARNING: Contains Course Language.**

* * *

_Tick, tick, tick._

That was the only sound Hikaru had been hearing for the past four hours.

He couldn't sleep, as simple as that.

For him, the whole day was so surreal. He had been having dreams for this kind of day to come to see Haruhi again, and now when it had come, he couldn't sleep.

He glanced to his brother who was sleeping peacefully next to him. He watched the rest of the guys who were sleeping in the room. Tamaki was sprawled out on his futon, mouth hanging open, a snore erupting every once in awhile. Kyouya had his glasses sitting next to his futon, himself laying still. Hunny was snuggling up against Mori, no surprise there.

He sighed and buried his face in his pillow. He wanted to sleep, he just couldn't.

As he continued to listen to the clock's ticking, he heard some noise outside the open window. He shifted his head ever so slightly so he could look in the corner of his eye. There, by the window, was a figure climbing inside. Panic flared up in him for a moment, but since there was no weapon near him, he continued to lay there. The figure climbed in and stood there for a moment, watching the boys who were asleep.

"Crap, I forgot they were staying with us…" the figure said. To his surprise, he recognised the voice as Haruhi's. But, wasn't she in her room?

Haruhi walked across the room, passing the twins' heads.

_Plop_

She opened the door that separated the living area to the hall, and she went inside to the bathroom. Once inside, closing the door but leaving it slightly ajar, Hikaru lifted his body up so he was resting on his elbows. He stared at the dark liquidly spot that was a foot away from his and his twin's heads, the same liquid that fell when Haruhi walked past him. As he examined it closer, he noticed it was…

"Blood…?" he whispered to himself, eyes widening once he had made that conclusion. He slowly got up, he would've gone up faster but didn't want to wake his twin, and went to the bathroom. Before he pushed the door open, he heard Haruhi whisper to herself.

"Goddammit… At least I got a few things…" he heard her whisper and the shuffling of a bag.

"Haruhi." he called out gently as he opened the door. She looked up from the backpack she was digging through with a surprised expression, and his eyes grew wide at the sight if her.

She had a black eye, her lip was busted, she had a huge gash on her arm and she was covered in cuts and bruises.

He quickly shut the door behind him and he immediately went to her side to have a closer look.

"Haruhi, what happened to you?!" he panicked, but luckily his voice was low enough for the people outside not to wake up.

She didn't respond, just continued to stare at him with a shocked face.

He looked up from the wound on her arm for a moment to meet her chocolate brown orbs. "Aren't you going to answer me?!" he pleaded.

She lowered her head and let her bangs cover her eyes.

"I can't." she simply replied.

"And why not?" he asked.

"Because," she said and lifted her head to meet his eyes again. "It's a secret that nobody is allowed to know. It's bad enough that Dad, Miya and Hiro know."

He cupped her face gently as he looked into her eyes.

"Please Haruhi, tell me, you're the closest person to me besides Kaoru." His soft eyes turned more determined and his expression turned to a scowl. "And dammit, if something like this happens, I want to know how so I can…" he faltered.

"So you can break their necks?" Haruhi finished for him with a raised eyebrow.

"More like kill them…" he muttered as his eyes wandered down to the floor, who had a few flecks of blood on it. Haruhi sighed as Hikaru removed his hands from her face, continuing to stare at the floor.

"Look, Hikaru, if I had tell you, then you have to promise me something," Hikaru lifted his head so his gaze so he met Haruhi's. "you can't tell anybody about this. Not Mori and Hunny, not Kyouya or Tamaki, not even Kaoru. NOBODY. You hear me?" He nodded stiffly. She sighed again. "I'm a smuggler, on weekend nights I go and smuggle goods between gangs for something in return. Though I sometimes get caught in a situation where these kind of things happen." she said and looked down at her arms. "I'm the only smuggler in this community, what I know of at least, and nobody can know because then there's a chance that the council will found out. And if they do, I would be kicked out." she explained.

"Oh…" Hikaru said and averted his gaze towards the backpack she had left on the counter. "What do you usually get in return?" he asked as he zipped open the front pocket. Haruhi jumped up on the counter to sit. Why? Because she wanted to, that's why. And her foot hurts, because she nearly twisted her ankle when running away from a couple of thugs.

"I mostly get stuff that we can't really get that easily here, like medical stuff." she said as he looked through the things inside the bag. "There's a roll of bandages in there that I could use for this gash, can you take it out?" she asked politely as he now started to take out some of the items in the backpack. He pulled out the requested item out, but just as she was about to take the roll from his hand, he grabbed her wrist and pulled her arm out.

"I'll do it." he said and gingerly started to wrap her arm up with the bandage. She watched with curious eyes at the boy in front of her.

"Thanks, I guess…" she said in a low tone.

"No problem." he responded. "There." he said once he was done. He looked up to her with furrowed eyebrows. "But how are we supposed to cover up that?" he asked and pointed to the girl's black eye.

"Oh, that's easy to take care of." Haruhi responded and jumped off of the counter. She placed a hand each on the sides of mirror, having a tight grip, and heaved it off the wall, then leaned it against the bathtub on the floor. Behind the mirror, on the wall, was a small cabinet door. She opened up to reveal a whole lot of makeup, everything in neutral shades. "I'll just cover it up with some makeup, just don't tell my dad I have this here." she said and took a small bottle of concealer. She placed a small dab of the concealer on her finger and crouched down in front the mirror. She touched her skin lightly with the finger, wincing slightly. He watched her as she smeared the concealer evenly around around her eye and other small bruises on her face, wincing every once in awhile. He crouched down next to her while she did the finishing touches, just watching her. She lightly dabbed lightly around her eye before she faced him and smiled. "Good as new." she said, and she was right. You couldn't even tell that she was wearing makeup, nor that she had been punched in the face.

"Why do you do this, Haruhi?" he asked seriously and still looked at her through the mirror. Her smile faltered and she stared down at the ground, suddenly finding the small crack very interesting. "Well?" he pressed on, facing her with a serious look, but if you looked closely, you could tell he was about to break down any moment.

"Because it's too late," she responded, still facing the floor. "You know that I always wanted to become a lawyer like Mom, because she was a great lawyer. She helped people every single day by being this great lawyer, but studying to become a lawyer is no use now. Lawyers don't exist anymore, so there's no point. And I don't have any degree or anything to help people, so I did the only thing that was left. I became a smuggler." she continued and sat down in a more comfortable position. "Even though nobody knows it, it helps a lot. There's a bunch of things out there that a regular hunter wouldn't be able to get easily, but a smuggler would." She let the corner of her lips go upwards to form a small smile. "Without people knowing it, I have saved lives with some of the items I received. And even though this is not the way I want to help people with, it's enough to feel somewhat proud. I believed in justice, but today justice barely exists, so I have to do something that makes me feel good doing on my own." she finished and looked up at him with sincere eyes, while he was in a mixture of emotions. He dropped his head and let his hair cast his eyes.

"But Haruhi, don't you understand?" he whispered. She continued to look at him with a sincere look on her face, indicating that she is listening. He looked up at her again, with a frown on his face. "Don't you understand, Haruhi?" he repeated slightly louder and gripped her shoulders. "You could get yourself killed by doing this, _killed_!" he yelled as he drew his face closer to hers, only inches apart.

She narrowed her eyes as she whispered in response, "It's a risk I'm willing to take."

He sighed and pushed himself away from her, tugging at his auburn locks as he once again looked down at the floor, letting his hair cast his eyes.

She glanced down at her watch that was on her wrist and noticed that it read 05:24.

"Hikaru, I should go now, I need to deliver some items this morning." she said and stood up, putting the concealer back to its spot and hung up the mirror. She collected her items that was on the counter into her backpack, and slung over the bag over her shoulder as she walked towards the bathroom door. She glanced towards Hikaru, who was now standing and just watching her, his eyes showing slight hurt. "I'll be back in a few hours, in time to make breakfast." she said as she rested her hand on the door handle. "You can go back to sleep, if you want." With that said, she left the room.

* * *

She shut the door behind her quietly and leaned against it.

"I heard."

Startled, she jerked up her head to see her father leaning against the door of the living area, staring off to the corner of the hallway.

"How long…?" she asked, not being able to finish her question.

"Long enough," he replied and stretched his arms. "Long enough to know that he found out." he added. The brunette pursed her lips and narrowed her eyes to her father, who either was oblivious or showed that he didn't care.

"I didn't mean for it to happen." she said in defence.

"I know you didn't," he said back and finally faced her. "But just because you 'didn't mean for it to happen' won't change the fact that it did happen." he said. "Haruhi, just know that accidents will always happen, and sometimes for the better, others for the worst. But I'd like to see this one be for the better."

"How is this for the better?" she growled and tucked a stray hair behind her ear. "He found out, which means there's more of a possibility the council will know!"

She saw the small smirk that played on her father's lips.

"Trust me, sweetie, this will be a good accident." he said and smiled. He then proceeded to push his daughter further down the hallway. "Now, now, scurry off, you have deliveries to do."

"Yeah, yeah." Haruhi said and rolled her eyes. "By the way, Dad, why were you up?"

"I just needed a glass of water from the kitchen, that's all!" he quietly sang as he opened the front door. "Now go!"

"Yes I will-" Before she even finished her sentence, her father slammed the door in front of her face.

"People these days," he sighed in frustration. "Can't see the good possibilities in life." he added as he went to the kitchen and filled up a glass to the brim with water.

Hikaru walked out of the bathroom, after spending an extra ten minutes just sitting there, taking this newly found information in and figuring it out. He glanced at the clock that was hanging on the wall, the same clock he had heard the non-stop ticking from only an hour ago.

"There's no point in going back to sleep…" he mumbled to himself.

"No, it's not, so how about you help me with breakfast?" Ranka's voice asked him. Hikaru let his eyes rest on the former cross-dresser, who was leaning against the wall in the kitchen while sipping on his drink, and shrugged.

"Might as well." Hikaru responded and stood up straight.

"You do realise that even though nobody wants Haruhi to do this, she won't stop." Ranka said and put his empty cup in the sink. Hikaru walked in and listened to the older man as Ranka continued to speak, his back still facing the younger boy. "Even though she is the best hunter in this community, one of the teachers to teach the younger kids how to defend themselves and practically has jobs around the place 24/7," Ranka paused so he could face Hikaru, who was looking slightly confused, with a small smile gracing his lips. "She continues on until she is satisfied, just like her mother."

"Oh…" Hikaru replied quietly and let his wander down to the floor.

"Don't worry about her too much, she's strong. Though she's not a rock, so be there for her when she needs it, 'kay?"

Hikaru looked up again, startled.

"She's more fragile than you think…" Ranka sighed and looked out the window with a far away look in his eyes.

* * *

**~FLASHBACK~**

**Day 1**

"That… That should do it…" Ranka quietly announced as he backed away a few steps from the front door, that was now barricaded with furniture so those…things wouldn't come in.

"Don't worry, Dad," he heard his wonderful daughter say reassuringly behind him. He turned his heel to face his daughter that was sitting in the middle of the now empty living room, her face buried in a notebook from school. "This will surely blow over in a few days and everything will be back to normal, and then I'll have that calculus exam at school. We have enough food to eat for about a week, and you have practically barricaded any way in." Haruhi said matter-of-factly and lifted her eyes up from her blue notebook, tucking a stray hair behind her ear. She quickly let her eyes avert to the mobile phone that the twins lent her that was in the corner of the room, checking to see if the small light on the front was glowing or not, indicating that she received a message. But to her dismay it still sat there dully, so she looked up at her father again. His breathing was slightly heavy, and some strands of fiery red hair sticking to his skin from sweat, due to moving so many heavy objects to the door alone (since he didn't want to have his precious Haruhi pushing heavy furniture). _'I wonder how the Host Club is doing… Their families probably sent them to another country to escape. Rich bastards…'_ Haruhi thought with slight bitterness.

* * *

Meanwhile with the rest of the club…

"ZOMBIES! BUT I AM TOO GORGEOUS AND YOUNG TO DIE!"

"They're not zombies…"

"UWAAAAAAH! TAKASHI, I DON'T WANNA DIE! I STILL WANT TO HAVE CAKE!"

"Calm down everyone, and we won't die. This will soon enough disappear and everything will be back to normal."

"OH MY GOD! HIKARU, WHAT ABOUT HARUHI?!"

"I'VE TRIED CALLING HER, BUT THE PHONE LINES ARE DEAD!"

"NOOOOO! MY PRECIOUS DAUGHTER! SHE MUST BE TERRIFIED! I HAVE TO SAVE HER!"

"Tamaki, calm down…"

"SHUT UP, TONO!"

"BUT SHE MIGHT BE GETTING EATEN THIS VERY MOMENT!"

"WE SAID SHUT UP!"

Okay, you get the drill.

* * *

**Day 8**

"Huh… The streets are pretty deserted." Ranka stated as peeked through the only small crack of the window that wasn't barricaded. A moment later a shriek of terror was heard, and a young man, who had been a neighbour to the Fujioka's for years, came running on the street with a dozen of infected, who had also been neighbours in the neighbourhood, following him, splattering fresh blood along there way on the already blood covered ground. "There goes Takuma." Ranka said with obvious sympathy in his voice.

Haruhi looked up from her green notebook, that was for English in school, with sorrowful eyes.

"Takuma Akiyama?" Haruhi asked, in which her father nodded in response, still gazing out the window. "That's sad… He was really nice."

"Yeah…" Ranka sighed and faced his daughter. "Haruhi, when are you going to stop rereading those notes you made?"

"This will all blow over sooner or later, so I must be prepared when I come back to school." Haruhi replied simply. She once again let her eyes briefly rest on the phone in the corner of the room, checking for any sign of the hosts. She had tried to call them before, but she would either receive:

A) _We're sorry for this inconvenience, but the caller is currently unavailable…_

Or

B) _Unfortunately, you won't be able to call since your monthly payment has not been paid…_

The second one only started to come since a few days ago, but she still was able to receive messages and calls. Ranka had sometimes gone out to the neighbourhood to see if there was any leftover food around to eat, and he would sometimes call from his cellphone to his daughter. _'…Why do I even care? They're rich and only care about themselves, they only concerned about me since I had that stupid debt to pay off. I bet they think I'm dead and they couldn't care less…'_ she thought, evidently hurt but covered it with her regular poker face.

* * *

**Day 21**

Haruhi read through her notebooks again, for probably the fifteenth time that day, and now she knew the materials off by heart, but she needs to make sure it stays in her brain until she goes back to school.

Her father had gone out again to find anything leftover in the neighbourhood, and she felt somewhat lonely, but she would never admit it.

_THUMP THUMP THUMP_

"HARUHI! Come out quick!" Ranka shouted through the door, making Haruhi jump five meters into the air from the surprise.

"What?" Haruhi called back when she stood up.

"Just come out!" he called out again. She sighed and obliged, walking to the door and unlocking the lock. The moment the door was open enough, a beaming Ranka attacked his daughter into a bone-crushing hug.

"…Dad…I…can't…breathe…" Haruhi managed to choke out. Ranka immediately let go of his daughter and faced her, grinning ear to ear. "So what?" she asked once she had regained my breath.

"Well, I-"

"OY, RYOJI, YOU COMING OR WHAT?" a deep male voice called out from the bottom of the stairs. Haruhi gasped and pushed her father away from her, so she could run over to the stairs and look down. There, at the bottom step, stood a man in his late twenties, with chestnut brown hair and caramel coloured eyes. Behind him was dozens and dozens of people, probably around thirty.

"Honey, I encountered these people while walking and they're on their way to a more safer part of the city. They asked me if I wanted to join them!" Ranka beamed. Haruhi watched her father's beaming smile with a bewildered look, but then nodded her head. "His name is Katsu, by the way." Ranka added and gestured a hand to the younger man at the bottom of the stairs.

"It would be a great idea." she said and smiled. Ranka's smile disappeared and blinked a few times. "Dad?" Haruhi questioned and raised an eyebrow.

"My…" he started, not finishing his sentence and kept the same look on his face.

"Yes?" Haruhi pressed on, and Katsu tilted his head slightly with an annoyed look plastered on his face, meaning 'say your thing and get a move on'.

"MY DAUGHTER IS SO CUTE!" he exclaimed and hugged his daughter in yet another bone-crushing hug.

"Be quiet, Dad! Those things can hear us!" Haruhi scolded and pushed her father off her.

"Oh right, sorry." Ranka apologised with a cheeky smile.

* * *

**Day 47**

"Finally, the wall is done!" Katsu exclaimed as the last brick was put on the huge walls. They had found an abandoned (rather quickly) military area of the city, with huge walls surrounding a large chunk of the city, though some holes were in the walls, weirdly enough. During the few weeks he and the rest of the survivors had been staying at the secluded area of the city, some other survivors had found them. Of course, the area was slightly to large for the only 38 survivors, but he knew that more would come eventually. He glanced around the small community around him, that seemed to be protected from those evil monstrous things over the gates. Suddenly Haruhi walked past him, rather upset. "Haru, what's wrong?" he asked concerned. She whipped around to face him, an obviously fake smile on her face and her eyes were a bit glazed.

"Nothing, I'm fine. I just need to think some things though." she responded. She brightened up and replaced the fake smile with a more genuine one. "I was actually wondering if I could maybe go for the job of a hunter? Dad says my fighting skills are improving." she said.

"With some more practise and you might, Haru." Katsu said cheerfully and started to walk off. "See ya later Haru!"

* * *

**Day 53**

"Haruhi, darling?" Ranka silently called out as he walked inside the small apartment they were temporarily living in. The hall was empty, but he heard quiet sobbing. "Honey?" he called out again, louder this time. He peeked in to the living room and gasped, finding his pure and innocent daughter burning all of her school books and notebooks in a metal bucket, tears flowing like waterfalls from her eyes. "Haruhi, what are you doing?!" her father shouted and violently opened the door, causing the hinges to bend slightly.

She turned her head and glared at her father, a scowl on her face even though the tears kept streaming down, her eyes puffy and her breath hitching here and there.

"I get it, okay?! I'm stupid, a stupid dense idiot that tries to reach the impossible! For almost two months now I have kept believing that everything will be okay and go back to normal, and I would be able to meet the rest of the guys again," she yelled as she watched the flames crackle and spit sparks. "But I know for sure that I won't be going back to school, I won't become a lawyer, and I also learnt that some of the people I mostly cared for were just rich, self-centred bastards that used, toyed and merely concerned for me because of a stupid debt." she added in a lower voice and continued to let the tears fall. "There's no point anymore to keep this stuff, so I might as well burn it." she said and looked down at the phone she received from the twins almost a year ago, the one she had been hoping to get contact through with the Host Club. Without any hesitation, she shut her eyes tight and tossed the phone into the fire.

"Oh honey…" Ranka said solemnly while he walked over to his daughter and crouched down beside her. "I'm really sorry…" he whispered and pulled her into a gentle hug. She in response wrapped her arms around him, sobbing onto his shirt.

* * *

**Day 94**

"I'm off, Dad." Haruhi called out through the larger apartment they lived in.

"Okay, be careful, sweetie~!" Ranka happily waved as Haruhi walked out of the front door, without another word. Once the door clicked shut, he sighed. Ever since Haruhi had made her 'realisation', she grew colder. She became a better fighter and eventually one of the best hunters in the community, now named Westford since a few days ago, but emotion was almost never seen on the girl. She barely even smiled nowadays, and the only words exchanged between them lately was 'bye, love you'.

Last time they had a proper conversation was the other night, when Ranka was up later than usual because he couldn't sleep, and found his daughter climbing through the window in the living area at four o'clock in the morning, cuts and bruises covering her petite frame. He kept asking her how until she finally confessed five hours later, and told him that she became a smuggler. At the time, he wanted to yell curses and slap some sense into his daughter, but only found himself speechless and frozen. He didn't know what to do, so he kept quiet and let his daughter do it, even though he was worried to death.

"Please… Kotoko, God, anyone, let Haruhi be herself again…" Ranka silently prayed before he went to the kitchen.

* * *

**Day 139**

_'It's all deserted…'_ Haruhi thought to herself. She was on hunting duty again, and she was in the middle of a popular market district. Well, popular before the infection spread._ 'I hope I'll find some good food.'_ she thought as she walked down the crosswalk. She stared down at ground as she walked, noting all the patches of blood, mud and other things that had dried on from the past months.

_PCHWO _ **[A/N: Um... Gunshot sound, if you didn't understand the sound effect. I don't know how to describe a gunshot. O.o]**

Haruhi jerked her head to the direction the gunshot was heard. Surprisingly enough, it was inside a small vet clinic.

"Huh weird…" Haruhi pondered and stared at the door. Then realisation hit her, MORE SURVIVORS! She ran to the door and pushed it open. "Hello?!" she called out.

"Go away!" cried a female voice. "Just leave me alone and let me die!"

Haruhi stepped over the shards of glass on the floor to reach the small hallway at the back, and walked down slowly to reach the ajar door at the end.

She stepped in to see a disaster zone, then to realise it was an office. Books and papers were scattered all over the floor, bloody marks were on the clear white wall, empty bullet shells on the blood soaked carpeted floor, among with the bodies of an older male and female, killed quite recently too.

Both of them were around their late thirties-early forties, the male had light-brown hair with hazel eyes, while the female had blonde locks and deep green eyes. Haruhi could tell on first glance that they were infected, and somebody had shot them through the head to kill them. That reminded her, where's the culprit?

She snapped out of her thoughts when she heard an animal-like yelp.

"I know you're here," said the female voice from earlier, but it was more broken than at first. Haruhi located the voice from underneath the desk. "But leave me alone, you can take everything I have, I won't be needing them anymore."

"I won't rob you." Haruhi replied sharply. She heard a small gasp from the owner of the voice, but it soon died and was replaced with the animal-like yelp again. Haruhi slowly crossed the large room to the desk, and crouched down to face the person. Underneath, was a girl the same age as Haruhi, an almost spitting image of the dead female on the floor. Golden blonde hair flowing down to the middle of her back, unfortunately streaked with some blood, her puffy eyes were a striking emerald green, her soft features on her face was either flecked with blood or had tear streaks and in her arms she cradled a tan-white beagle dog, with a rather large chomp mark on its side. "It's infected…" Haruhi stated quietly as she was eyeing the dog. The girl responded with a scowl.

"So what?" she snorted. "I'm not leaving her, she's the only family I have left."

"Was that you're parents over there?" Haruhi asked in a whisper, referring to the bodies only a few meters away from them, both sympathy and empathy tracing her face. The girl shielded her eyes with her bangs and nodded, her breath hitching.

"A few weeks ago, one of those things managed to come in. While my parents tried to kill it off, they got bitten. They only turned today, but they already bit Uzi before I could kill them…" the girl explained as she held her dog slightly tighter.

"Oh…" Haruhi said.

"Well, what do you want? If you're not robbing me, or killing me, from what I'm seeing, then what are you doing?" the girl asked bitterly.

"I'm here with an offer." Haruhi replied, hiding some of the sadness in her voice.

"Whatever it is, I'm declining, I have already planned everything out." the girl said while stroking the fur of her dog. "I'll just wait for our end, I have nothing to live for anymore."

"That's not true," Haruhi interjected with a frown and the girl looked up at her. "Just because everyone you love are gone now, it doesn't mean that they want you to join them on the other side." Haruhi said seriously. "The world may seem bleaker now, especially with this horrible disease spreading, but there is still hope. There's a difference between people leaving you with no other choice, but they still love you and hope everything goes well for you even without them, than the people you love brush you off like you're soil." Haruhi said more bitterly at the end. "I live in a community full of other survivors, and we don't just have each other to be stronger physically, but there's a lot of love there too. We're all there to know that there is hope."

The girl's eyes sparkled for a moment before she gulped.

"But… What about Uzi? I can't leave her here." she said and sniffed.

"Bring her," Haruhi said with a smile. "You can give her some food, take care of her until she…turns, and after her, you know, death, we can bury her."

"Really?" the girl asked weakly. A bright smile came upon the girl's face. "Did you hear that Uzi?" she asked excitedly to her dog. "We can fix you up and I can make your favourite meal!" she squealed excited. Uzi, the dog if you haven't noticed, licked Miya's face playfully for seeing her owner happy again.

"Do you want to come?" Haruhi asked. The girl gave a satisfied smile and nodded.

"Sure, what else do I have to lose?" she said. She shifted the weight on her dog in her arms, and slowly climbed out from underneath the desk. "I'm Miyaki Arukase, by the way, but call me Miya." she said and flashed a smile.

"I'm Haruhi Fujioka, but people call me Haru." Haruhi replied as she stood up with a mirror image of a smile.

* * *

**Day 165**

"Are you sure you can handle it? You've only done small firearms before..." Haruhi said as she watched Miya aim a shotgun to a cardboard target that was on the wall. It had been about a week since her dog died, and she cried her eyes out, but soon started to light up and think positively. She wanted to become a hunter just like Haruhi, so they could work together, and now she was practicing to handle certain weapons, in a room that was specifically for this purpose in the community.

She loaded the shotgun and aimed at the target.

"Haru, I'll be fine. All I need to do is- WAAAAAAH!"

Miya jerked backwards and fell on her butt the moment she pulled the trigger, if you were wondering.

Haruhi looked up to see the target...that was not hit...and the bullet went about two metres away from the edge of the target on the wall.

"Ow…" Miya groaned on the floor. Haruhi averted her gaze and blinked a couple of times to the blonde girl, who was now rubbing her butt gently on the ground, and placed a hand over her own mouth while looking away. Miya noticed this and sighed. "Okay, I suck, but don't look so disappoin-"

"Kukukuku…" Haruhi snickered. "Fufufu…Hahahaha…HAHAHAHAHAHA!"

Haruhi started to laugh uncontrollably and held her abdomen, gasping for air while laughing hysterically.

"You didn't-! You didn't even hit the target-! HAHAHAHAAHAHA!" Haruhi kept laughing, and this was an odd site to see for Miya. She had only seen some smiles here and there, but otherwise there wouldn't be any kind of emotion on the brunette's face, just a plain blank look. And seeing her laugh her ass off was weird. So Miya did the only she could think of: she laughed with Haruhi.

Haruhi fell to her knees because of the hilariousness, and they both just sat there and laughed.

Haruhi wiped a tear away from her eye and sighed satisfied once she calmed down.

"Geez, I haven't laughed this much since-" she stopped herself to continue, not wanting to mention them. They were gone from her life now, nothing important.

Miya saw her friend's uncertainty and became concerned.

"Since when?" she inquired, wondering why her new friend wouldn't speak of a wonderful time she had.

"Nothing, it is in the past." Haruhi and stood up.

"Please Haru! Tell me!" Miya pleaded and did puppy dog eyes as she jumped up. "_Please_?"

Haruhi gave her a skeptical look, but then sighed again.

"Get the popcorn ready, this'll be a long ass story." Haruhi said and started to walk to the door out. "It all started on my first day of high-school in Ouran Academy…"

**~END FLASHBACK~**

* * *

Hikaru gaped at Ranka after he had told him snippets of what had happened during these past two years.

"Haruhi…thought…that we _abandoned_ her?" Hikaru whispered in disbelief. Ranka nodded solemnly.

"Even if you boys tell her what really happened, she'll still…be a bit distant." Ranka explained. "But consider yourself a lucky man for knowing her dark secret, she has given people amnesia before by whacking them on the head hard enough." Ranka snickered. Of course, Hikaru instantly thought of the time when Ritsu Kasanoda found out about Haruhi's gender and how he and his brother were 'planning' to give him amnesia by beating him with a baseball bat.

"Good morning everyone~!" Tamaki's singsong voice was heard down the hall. "Wait- WHERE'S THE OTHER DEVIL TWIN?! HE'S NOT TAKING AWAY MY DAUGHTER'S INNOCENCE, IS HE?!"

Hikaru noticed Ranka's visible twitches.

"TAMAKI, SHUT THE HELL UP IF YOU WANT TO STILL LIVE." Kyouya's menacing voice was heard, and Hikaru himself winced. He almost felt bad for Tamaki. Almost, that is.

"BUT WE HAVE TO PROTECT OUR DAUGHTER- UGH!"

_SLAM_

Hikaru and Ranka peered over the corner, to see Tamaki laying sluggishly on the floor in front of the bathroom door, who now had a very large dent on it, and a pillow was next to Tamaki's head, which had a very large visible bump growing on him.

"Wow, that must be a new record for Kyouya, almost giving someone a concussion by using a _pillow_." Hikaru mused.

"I hope that knocked some sense into that Suoh boy." Ranka said bitterly as Kaoru stepped out of the sleeping area and looked down at his lord.

"Tono, you know better not to shout early in the morning around Kyouya and Hunny." the younger twin yawned out.

* * *

**Okay, so we found out Haruhi's secret and some of the past! **

**I'm practically dead now, I've been trying to write almost every possible moment. I was determined to post this chapter by Friday. (Why can't I be this determined with my homework?)**

**Anyways, I'll just have to see what will happen in the next chapter, since I have no fricken clue. (I have ideas for like chapter 8 but not 6...) **

**Well, I'll see you guys later then!**


	6. Chapter 6: Conditions

**HEY GUYS! Sorry for the slow update, been kinda busy the past week and never really found the time (until today) to just sit down and write. But today I did and I wrote like five pages in two hours...**

**I'm glad people are enjoying this fic, since this takes up SO MUCH TIME to write, but it is all worth it in the end (especially when I get reviews x3)!**

**Once again, sorry if it is sucky, but it is quite rushed since I only had like twenty minutes to write every day.**

**Let us continue!**

* * *

After a yawn or two, since it was so darn early still, from Kaoru leaning against the doorframe to the living area and a few whimpers from Tamaki that sat on the floor, Kaoru noticed his brother's presence.

"Eh? Hikaru, what're you doing up so early?" he asked, puzzled that his brother woke up before him. Tamaki remembered his reason of the outburst from only a few seconds ago and glared daggers at the older twin.

"What did you do to my daughter?!" the 'king' demanded, and because Ranka was still in the room, the former Host Club president received a not so pleasant look and was sent to his corner of woe, again.

"I did nothing, Tono," Hikaru remarked with a blank look. "But I couldn't sleep, so I decided to get up." And he left it at that, where Kaoru only shrugged. Kaoru himself could agree that he had trouble sleeping, but nothing too serious.

"Stupid Tama-chan," they all heard Hunny grumble on the other side of the door, and they shivered at the thought of the dark look on his face. "You know that Usa-chan and I like to- Huh? Is that blood?"

The very familiar feeling of panic settled in Hikaru and Ranka, for having the newly found secret found out again. Meanwhile, Kaoru and Tamaki opened the door that separated the hall to the former club's temporarily sleeping area, and stared wide-eyed at the child-looking twenty-year old, who was inspecting a small dark spot that was on the floor.

"Takashi, is that blood?" the small boy Lolita asked to his stoic cousin. Said cousin crouched down next to him and inspected the small spot as well.

"It is." he said and touched the spot, so he had some on it at the top of his fingertips. "It wasn't here last night, though."

* * *

"Ah thank you, Haruhi!" a middle-age woman praised to the girl named after spring while holding a bottle of cough medicine in her hands. "Aneko has been having a terrible cough these past few days, this is just what I needed, thank you!"

"It's okay," Haruhi said and gave the older woman a smile. "I had noticed it as well so I thought I would get it."

"You're an angel, Haruhi." the woman said and smiled warmly. She turned her heel to walk back inside to the building she lived in. "Well, tata, Haruhi! Be safe!" With that said, the older woman slipped in to her building.

Haruhi could feel that warm feeling of accomplishment that she always got whenever she gave an item to one of the community's citizens. She was done delivering her smuggled items, and if she headed home now, she would be able to make it on time to make breakfast and eat it peacefully with Miya, her dad, and the rest of the guys before she would have to go to do her daily jobs.

'_Why didn't I ever go to Ouran for supplies before?'_ she thought to herself.

"Ah! Haru, there you are!"

Haruhi turned around to see Yuri walk over to her, clad in her nurse clothing. Yuri's father was a doctor after all, and that was a great opportunity for her to become a training nurse.

"One of dad's friends need more syringes, can you try to get some?" she asked.

"Yeah, I'll try," Haruhi said and nodded. "By the way, how's the research going?"

I think everyone should know that during these past two years, they still had been trying to find a cure for the infection. There was some scientists in the community who worked regularly to find one, but little progress has been made.

"Not that good, all they know for sure is that you become infected by blood. So long an infected's saliva or blood or whatever doesn't come near yours, then you're fine. But they said that we may need to extract and duplicate something natural against the infection to create a cure than by making one with a bunch of chemicals, since most of them don't work against the infected." Yuri explained and sighed sadly. "In my ears it sounds like we have to find someone who is immune." Haruhi frowned.

"And what's the possibility of that?" she scoffed.

"Exactly." Yuri agreed. "Anyway, I better get going for my shift, say hi to those hotties you found yesterday for me!" Yuri said in a slightly flirty tone and walked off. Haruhi could have sworn she heard Yuri say 'especially that tall blonde one' under her breath.

_'Someone immune... Like that is ever going to happen, everyone has just be careful then and let these things die out.' _Haruhi thought as she started to walk back to her apartment.

* * *

"What do you mean, Takashi?" Hunny asked and cutely cocked his head.

"As I said, the blood wasn't on the floor when we went to sleep, and none of us had such severe injuries that we started to bleed." Mori explained.

"But…where did it come from then?" Tamaki pondered and cupped his fingers on his chin. "Though, I do think I heard some footsteps somewhere early in the morning."

"That would be me, Tono." Hikaru stated.

"I could've sworn that I heard someone else's footste-"

"GOOD MORNING EVERYONE! My, you guys even look attractive in the morning! So Ranka, has Haruhi woken up yet and gone out?! Will she be home soon so we can have breakfast?!" Miya shouted as she bursted in to the room.

"YES! Haruhi did wake up and go! She'll be back home soon though!" Ranka said rather quickly. "By the way, is the blue shampoo bottle in the shower yours? Haruhi hasn't finished her shampoo yet and I use the anti-dandruff one." he asked.

"Eh? Shampoo? Which one?" Miya asked back with curious eyes.

"Come, I'll show you!" Ranka exclaimed cheerfully and hooked his arm with the girl's, strode out of the room to the bathroom and slammed the door shut after him. Approximately twenty seconds later a loud 'WHAT?!' was heard from the blonde girl. Once again, the bathroom door was slammed open, a blank look on the blonde, and said blonde speed-walked to the older twin, purely by chance that she got it right, and grabbed his collar.

"Me. You. Talk. NOW." she said seriously and dragged him to the bathroom, where Ranka was leaning against the doorframe.

"I knew it! That devil twin did do something to my daughter!" Tamaki exclaimed distraughtly, pointing an accusing finger to the now closed bathroom door.

_K-chak_

"What's all the ruckus about? I could hear it from outside the building." an annoyed Haruhi complained while she walked into the room.

"DAUGHTER!" Tamaki shouted and ran up to Haruhi to give her hug. "WHAT DID THAT EVIL TWIN DO TO YOU?!" He then proceeded to notice the bandage on her arm. "HARUHI! WHAT HAPPENED?!"

"Oh, this?" Haruhi asked innocently and pointed to her arm. "Just a cut, nothing to worry about. Someone was trying to do tricks with knives while I was out and accidentally cut me. No biggie." she said casually, the words slipping out of her mouth. She was used to it, to lie about injuries people didn't see the day before.

"Hey, Haru-chan, do you know where this blood came from?" Hunny asked and looked down at the spot on the floor.

"Ah, that's mine." Haruhi answered smoothly, feeling everyone's wide eyes at her. "I got a wound which started to sting and itch during the night, and then I itched it until it started to bleed. I came in here because there was a first aid kit in the closet there." she said and pointed to the closet, all the boys' gazes following her finger. She then clasped her hands and smiled brightly. "Now who wants breakfast?"

"YAY! HARU-CHAN'S COOKING!" Hunny exclaimed and jumped up in joy, totally forgetting about the blood incident.

"Yeah yeah." Haruhi sighed and looked around curiously. "Eh, where's Hikaru?"

"From how it sounds like, Ranka, Miya and him are in the bathroom talking about shampoo." Kyouya said indifferently.

"Now that just sounds ridiculous."

* * *

"HOW THE HELL DID YOU FIND OUT?!" Miya yelled in Hikaru's face, but somehow was low enough in the voice for the others not to hear.

"I've already explained it to you four times…" Hikaru mumbled and used his right hand to push the blonde's face further away from him, since their noses were nearly touching. Ranka on the other hand was leaning against the counter, a hand on the top for support and had quite the smirk on his face.

"Calm down Miya, this might be a good thing." he said. The girl made such a violent turn to Ranka, that Hikaru could wonder how she didn't lose her head, with a very bad tempered scowl on her face and you could almost see the flames in her eyes.

"What do you mean 'good thing'?! We're screwed! SCREWED, OLD MAN!" she yelled at Ranka, and he made a note that she was very pissed, since she didn't call him 'old man' unless she was in a very bad mood. He held up his index finger at her and waved it lightly as he made a 'tsking' sound.

"Think, Miya, think. He might be…well…you know." he said with a grin. The girl looked at him confused before she nodded, understanding what the former okama meant.

"This may be actually something good." Miya said softly, a small smile coming to her face.

"What are you two talking about?" Hikaru questioned and raised an eyebrow.

"Nothing!" the other two chorused.

"Let's just go enjoy Haruhi's cooking now!" Ranka said and started to push out the two teenagers from the bathroom, that still had flecks of blood on the floor from earlier that morning. Someone should really go and clean that.

* * *

Haruhi poked her egg with her fork, looking down at the yolk as it made a messy yellow mess, herself deep in thought. She took a quick glance up to see the people surrounding the table, eating their breakfast. Miya was blabbering about some event that happened once when Haruhi and her were out hunting, Hunny was chewing his food in delight while Mori watched him with a smile, Kyouya was eating his food like a normal human being and was listening to Miya, Ranka was glaring at Tamaki who was sputtering some nonsense about how 'he's sorry', and the twins just sat there slightly awkwardly, Kaoru giving the odd glance to his twin every once in awhile. Haruhi, being the closest friend out of all to the twins, knew why their atmosphere was awkward. She knew that Kaoru could tell that Hikaru knew something that he didn't, and that was a first. Those two shared all their secrets with each other, so it was no wonder that Kaoru felt agitated.

Unless you were Haruhi yourself, you wouldn't even be able to tell how stressed she is. 'Stressed' was practically her middle name, but Haruhi had managed to mask her stress with a usual calm face. Want to know why she's stressed?

She is stressed because:

She has so many items to try to find, or smuggle in.

She's going to have a new class for when she is teaching, which is never good on the first day.

She needs to find suitable jobs for everyone in the club, since you can't live in Westford for free, not long at least.

Her mind is in a whirlpool of emotions because she actually met her friends again.

One of those friends found out her secret.

And another bazillion things that she won't mention.

"…right, Haru?" Miya asked with a smile.

"Huh?" Haruhi said and looked up, stopping her fork in mid-air so the sausage on it fell back on to the plate. Miya frowned, crossed her arms and did a 'humph' sound.

"Haru, did you even pay attention?" Miya asked annoyed.

"No, sorry, I was thinking about something." Haruhi said and let her gaze fall down to the plate, poking with her food again.

"Well, while you were off dreaming," Miya said, irritation dripping in her voice. "Kyouya and I were talking about what kind of jobs the guys could have. I think I have found a job for all of them." Miya chirped happily, letting her bad mood disappear momentarily. Haruhi stared at her with curious eyes, telling her to continue on, because Haruhi couldn't ask since she had her mouth full of sausage. "For Kyouya, he seemed to be in a good position to become an assistant for one of the council members, Hunny and Mori seems to be qualified perfectly for hunters, the twins have the skills to become sewers, and Tamaki…I have troubles with." Miya said, sounding disappointed at the end.

"He can be a babysitter." Haruhi remarked, and saw the looks everyone gave her, Tamaki's especially saying 'why daughter?'. "I mean, he's practically useless at fighting, and anything that has to do with hard labour, but he's good with kids, so he can take care of some of our workers' children while the parents themselves work." Haruhi explained and shrugged.

"That's a brilliant idea, Haruhi!" Ranka exclaimed in glee, and somehow jumped over the table to give his precious daughter a hug.

"Dad!" Haruhi warned. "I'm still sore!"

"Oh right, sorry." Ranka said sheepishly as he pried himself off of her. She rolled her eyes at her father's antics, but couldn't help to curve a small smile on her lips.

* * *

_SPLASH_

"HEY! THAT KID STOLE MY FOOD!"

"FUCKING SHOOT HER THEN!"

**PANG**

**BANG**

"SHIT!" a girl cursed and hid behind a car, to not receive any bullets.

She panted and wiped off the beads of sweat on her forehead, pushing her naturally white-haired bangs away from her different coloured eyes. As the bullets continued to pellet the car, she glanced down at the small bag of food she swiped away from the two men. She peeked inside to see some bread, two water bottles, cheese and some ham.

"This'll last me a few days." the girl said to herself while tying a tight knot. She stuffed the plastic bag into her backpack, and sighed in exasperation. This week had been too much for her to handle.

The only person in her family, her older brother, died, more like turned into a hideous beast, and bit her before she shot him through the head twice, the second time for good measure. She was puzzled though, it had been about six days since she became bitten and yet no symptoms had come to her yet. '_Probably come sooner or later.' _she thought and slung the bag over her shoulder, listening to the men cursing out loud because they were out of bullets. _'How stupid can you get?'_ she thought while she sneakily ran out of the area, doing her best not to be seen. When she was out of sight, still running though, she pulled up her blue sleeve on her left to reveal a chomp mark on her forearm. She frowned, trying to put the pieces together. _'Strange, the skin cracks hasn't even appeared yet… Oh well, don't dwell on it too much, Chizuko, you'll eventually turn.'_ she thought and pulled her sleeve back down, continuing to run to her 'home'.

* * *

"That was easier than I thought," Haruhi said dully as she, Miya and the rest of the boys walked in to the apartment. They had been out all day searching for the jobs, and they were all successful to it. Heck, even Tamaki managed to use his old hosting skills to flatter some mothers of taking care of their children while they're working. It was actually too easy…

"Haru-chan!" Hunny's voice piped out, snapping Haruhi out of her thoughts. She looked down at her former senpai, that was tugging at the hem of her shirt.

"Yes, Hunny?" she asked, pushing a stray hair behind her ear in the process.

"What're you thinking about? You've been a bit dazed!" he inquired innocently, hugging his Usa-chan in his arms. She smiled an half-genuine warm smile at him, and ruffled his hair, a habit she has to do with small children when they ask innocent questions like his.

"Nothing, I'm just thinking about stuff." she said and sighed. "That actually reminds me about tonight…" she mumbled under her breath, and Hunny blinked with his brown orbs.

"What about tonight?" Hunny asked, but his gaze turned more concerned as his brows furrowed. Her eyes widened, not believing that she just spoke that thought out loud.

"Nothing!" she said quickly, a little to quickly, and it only rose the young man's suspicions. He saw the small panic in her eyes, but hid it well with her poker-face, when she checked the time on the small beige clock that hung on the wall. It wasn't that late, but the job searching had consumed a lot of time in the day, and now it was around eight pm. "Um… Hunny…"

Miya, thankfully coming to the rescue, came in and could see her friend's confliction within herself when she was talking to the child-like blonde. Miya wasn't an idiot, she was actually pretty clever, she just can be very obnoxious at times, and she knew that she had to do something that exact moment to quench Haruhi's worries about Hunny's questions. These were moments where Miya acted obnoxious on purpose.

"HEY!" she said loudly, waving her arms and smiled brightly, like she just found out an awesome idea. "We totally forgot to tour the community, so why don't we go for a long walk? And besides, I really want to go get some strawberries at the communal garden, it is the season after all!" Miya said promptly, putting her hands on her hips.

All members of the former Host Club looked at her with quizzical looks.

"WHAT A FANTASTIC IDEA!" Tamaki shouted high and mighty. "I wanna go get some nice fresh fruits for my precious Haruhi!" he said with a beaming smile.

Haruhi sighed a breath of relief, seeing what her friend was trying to do, and played along.

"You know, Miya, I have an early shift at the school tomorrow, so I think I'll stay behind and go to sleep." Haruhi said and wiggled out of Hunny's grasp, and walked down the hallway to her room.

"Okay, Haru! We'll see you later!" Miya yelled as she waved to her friend. Haruhi's door clicked shut, and then Miya began to shoo out the boys.

"Uh, I'd actually like to stay here, I don't really feel like going out again." Hikaru said and subtly smacked Miya's hand away, which she used to push the twins out the door. She eyed him suspiciously, and noticed the looks of expectation from Tamaki. She was about to say no, before a certain thought crossed her mind in a haste and she smirked.

"Of course you can stay, Kaoru!" she said and pushed him back inside, while the younger twin stared at his brother slightly puzzled. Okay, now he KNEW that Hikaru was hiding something… But since when?

"I'm Hikaru." he corrected, a scorn on his face.

"Sorry," she mumbled, turning guilty and back to happy in zero point four seconds. "Anyways! Let's go!" she chirped and pulled the collars of the shirts worn by Kaoru and Tamaki.

"WAIT! WE CAN'T LEAVE THIS DEVIL WITH MY PRECIOUS HARUHI! HE WILL DEFLOWER HER!" Tamaki yelled and tried to run back inside, but was firmly captured by Miya's grip on his shirt. She wasn't known to be the second best hunter for nothing.

"No he won't, Ranka will be home in an hour or so, so Hikaru can't do anything too drastic." she reassured and started to walk further down the hallway to the stairs, dragging along a shrieking Tamaki and a confused Kaoru, while the rest of the club followed the blonde girl.

Hikaru quirked his eyebrow as he shut the front door. Why did his brother looked so confused, he wondered. It wasn't the first time he had wanted to stay behind while his brother and the rest of his friends went somewhere, but his brother never objected or asked why. Kaoru just knew it was either that he was too lazy to go or it was just he had to do some ultimate-last-minute homework to do back in the day.

He stood there, just trying to put pieces together. Kaoru had been… He couldn't describe it. He wasn't distant, they still talked simultaneously and such, but there was just questioning aura around his brother he had felt.

"Hikaru?"

That certain voice snapped him out, and he turned to see his friend standing by her door, all geared up with weapons and backpack, ready to go out. He just stared at her, noting the small weapons around her, the clunky bag on her back, the slightly fading makeup on her skin and all other details. She was just getting herself prepared for something that could kill her, and she knew it very well, but did it anyway. He didn't want her to go, because she may never come back. And…

God dammit, he's not losing her again after waiting two years.

"Why aren't you with the others?" she asked as she stepped over to him, but he continued to stare at her, unconsciously clenching his fists.

"I didn't want to go." he said dully, a slight frown on his face.

"Well, I'm about to go, so I can't entertain you." she said and started to walk to the living room, so she could climb out the window. But before she even managed to take the smallest step, Hikaru grabbed her shoulder.

"I didn't want to go with them," he said seriously, a side of Hikaru Haruhi had rarely seen. "Because I want to come with you." he finished. Haruhi's eyes widened and she gave him a look that was a mixture of a glare and a look of worry.

"You can't!" she snapped. "You do realise I'll have to be watching your ass if you do? And the last thing I need is to explain how the hell you got beat up or killed to your brother." she said in a dangerous tone.

"Too bad, because I am coming wether you like it or not!" he snapped back at her, his face a scowl but his eyes having fear written all over them.

"Hikaru, I can see you're scared, so don't do this!" she yelled and smacked his hand away, intending to go alone like usual. She tried to walk away again, but he grabbed her again. But instead by just stopping her by the shoulder, he pulled her into an hug from behind.

"Please, Haruhi, let me come with you." he whispered into her ear, more broken and sad than his harsh voice before. "I'm not scared of dying or anything," he said and held her slightly tighter. "I'm more afraid of losing you."

Haruhi's eyes widened and she continued to stand there, limply and frozen while Hikaru continued to speak.

"I have waited two years to see you again. Everyone else told me to forget about you, but I just couldn't, and now when you're here, I don't want to lose you forever by you doing something like that." he continued on, and he could feel the tears sting in his eyes. It was true, how could you just forget about the only other person you've opened up to? These kind of feelings he's only shown to Kaoru, but then there was Haruhi. He didn't know why, but ever since she told them that she could tell him and Kaoru apart, he just wanted to be with her more, and he became more open towards her. And when she disappeared on that day, his heart clenched, and he just ached to see her again.

"Hikaru…" Haruhi whispered, calling out for him. "I've already explained it to you-"

"Please, let me come." he said again, interrupting her.

She sighed and tried to think the pros and cons of him coming along. So far, there were more pros, but there was still that big con of him being killed that nagged on her.

"Fine," she said defeated. "This one time you can come, and maybe if you can take of yourself good enough, you might be able to come another time if you don't chicken out." she said firmly.

She expected him to cheer or something like he usually did, but instead, he just hugged her tighter and said a small 'thank you'. He let her go and walked past her with a ghost like smile.

"Lead the way." he said and gestured a hand to the window.

"Idiot." Haruhi muttered, but yet the most faintest smile curving the corners of her lips. "Get a backpack at least."

* * *

The door to an old bar creaked open, inside having about thirty people, soft rock music playing in the background while the air reeked of smoke from cigarettes or the alcohol from the drinks around. Either all of people were drunk and playing pool, or the girls would be wearing skimpy clothes and flirt with the drunktards.

The multi-coloured eyed girl walked inside casually, ignoring all the looks of disgust on her. They were all only jealous of her anyway, since just a twelve-year-old from the street could already have so much contact with the boss of the place.

She continued to walk for a beeline to the door at the back, shifting the weight of her rucksack along the way. She opened the door to reveal a man, about early thirties, flirting with the two skimpy-clothed girls beside him, one on each side. He looked up with a perverted grin, but turned it to a mere smirk when he saw who it was by the door.

"Ah! Chizuko! You're back." he said in his low deep voice.

"Yes, I am." she responded and closed the door behind, leaning against it. "I got the items you asked for." she said as she slid off the bag off from her shoulder, zipped it open and took out two bottles of red wine out.

"Good girl." the man snickered. "Just place them on the table and run off, my employee is coming soon."

"Yes, sir." she said and did as he asked, before she ran to the stairs at the back, where she would be taken to a whole lot of rooms at the top. She reached up and ran into the closet that was her room she received from the man when her brother died. He didn't realise, but she could hear all of his conversations with whoever from here. She took a deep breath before she plopped herself down at the floor, opened her bag to take out her food she stole earlier. He didn't provide food or water to her, he only provided a place for to sleep during night, and she in return would go out to fetch items he would request. Not exactly the most fairest deal, but it was enough. She could take care of herself, she was just such a coward when it came to night and when she sleeps. She doesn't want to end up dead or infected the next morning. But the latter has already kind of happened, unbeknownst to him.

* * *

"This way." Haruhi whispered as she climbed down the fire-escape that was bolted onto the building, close to her window. Hikaru followed close behind, geared up with his bag and weapons. They landed at the bottom of the building, that was in an alleyway between the building and the wall separating the community and the outside world. They wandered along side of it, hiding behind a corner or a nearby bush whenever they would see person that could spot them. They continued like this until they reached the gates, where Hiro greeted them but looked shocked to see Hikaru.

"He found out, and he's stubborn, so he tagged along." Haruhi explained quickly while Hiro opened the gates.

"Just be careful." Hiro said with a concerned expression. "But I guess I shouldn't be worried, this is Haru I'm talking about." he said more happily, and closed the gates once the smuggler and the older twin came out. She smiled faintly to the gates before she started to jog down the street.

"Let's get this over and done with!" she called over her shoulder.

* * *

**You know, I was willing to write more but my body just kept saying no. I was completely exhausted from today, because it was sports day at school, and I hate sports. So I was tired, my muscles were aching and my brother was pestering me every five minutes about something. About half of this was written today, and I was also interrupted every single minute since I became the most popular kid on the web for today. My friends were chatting with me on Facebook, I chatted with one guy I know and I was PM'd a few times here on FanFiction. At least I hope this will satisfy your needs for awhile, because I am beaten down from exhaustion.**

**Until next time! And always read and review! **


	7. Chapter 7: A Smuggler's Journey

**Hello guys, here's the seventh chapter! :P I wanted to update yesterday but I was I like "It's a bit short…" so I wrote a little more. The ending is kinda rushed because I couldn't leave it to later, otherwise I would fall asleep and you guys had to wait another day… I don't want that happening! I don't wanna deprive you guys! **

**As you may have noticed, I update this story once a week (that'll change temporarily when I have my holidays in three weeks time). Mainly because I barely get any time for this story, so I need time. But do expect to see it updated every Friday or Saturday, one of those two. :)**

**WARNING: Contains Course Language.**

* * *

The door did its familiar creaking sound, which only did that sound a few minutes ago, when it opened, and in came a well-known determined woman with a man, his face unfamiliar and nervous as hell.

Snickers were heard around the room, all of them mostly teasing the woman's choice of companion.

"Hikaru, I can feel your nervousness, and it doesn't look good. You chose to come with me, so at least try to act normally." Haruhi warned and nudged Hikaru's arm. But he didn't pay attention, he was too busy by subtly looking around the building he was in with awareness.

She did a small, inaudible sigh, and continued to strut down to the back door, with the nervous older twin behind her.

She opened the door and stepped in, greeting the man in front of her with a scowl. The man looked up at her with his perverted grin and toyed with a lock of hair from one of the girls beside him.

"Ichiro." Haruhi said simply, never changing her ill expression to the man.

Ichiro was a man at the age of thirty-two, the boss of a certain surviving gang in the hideous world of disease. Haruhi knew him well, kind of, because he was a regular client of hers to smuggle in and out goods between his and a few other gangs around the city. She hated him, with his always short messy, tangled raven hair, wide open yet bloodshot eyes of caramel, a disgustingly dirty beige (or was it that filthy that it was once upon time white?) tank-top underneath his thin black vest, his loose-fitting jeans covered of stains from liquids of sorts, his always assortment of slutty girls, and last but not least his perverted signature grin. But he paid well, so she stuck around with him, even with her hatred towards him.

The girl on his left, a girl quite young, maybe twenty-three, with long flowing strawberry blonde hair, blue tinted green eyes, wearing a half-cropped tight pink tank-top, revealing her flat as a cardboard stomach and emphasising her C-cup breats, and white short-shorts, gave Haruhi a look of disgust, because she knew deep down the man next to her wanted Haruhi, since the younger brunette had a certain perverted 'soft'-spot in his heart.

The girl on his right, equally the same age as the girl on the left and had brown hair tied up in a messy bun, kind dark eyes, wearing a loose yet sexy-looking sleeve-less white hoodie, her shorts black, was completely oblivious to Haruhi's scowls, but was more concerned about her strawberry blonde haired friend across from her. She didn't care if her boss wanted the brunette smuggler his, she just wanted to escape from his grasp and let him leave her alone. She didn't understand why the strawberry blonde across from her wanted their boss' attention so bad.

"Haruhi!" Ichiro sniggered, adding his regular him of perverseness in his deep voice. "You came on time!"

"Yes I did." Haruhi said and sat down in a plastic chair across the table from him, leaving Hikaru standing by the door. "Can we just get down to business?"

"Of course! So- Oh? Who's this?" he asked, fake innocence dripping in his voice. It just sounded so _wrong_. "I thought you worked alone, Haru? Or is this your boyfriend and he wants to stay by your side?"

Haruhi kept her regular cold expression, but couldn't hide the faintest tint of pink on her cheeks. Hikaru, on the other hand, let his mouth hang slightly open as his face went scarlet. He tried to protest, and say the man was wrong, but no words came out, just strangled vowels.

"I was right, wasn't I?" Ichiro laughed, but if you really strained to listen, you could hear the most faintest sound of disappointment.

"He's not my boyfriend. A close best friend of mine, but we're aren't intimate." Haruhi said indifferently, narrowing her eyes the slightest to the older man in front of her. Hikaru sighed a breath if relief, mainly from not making a fool out of himself from his stupid quiet sputtering.

"Fine!" Ichiro said and acted defeated. "Be that way! It only means one thing if he isn't your boyfriend…" Ichiro added before he leaned over the table, cupped his fingers underneath Haruhi's chin, leaning his forehead against hers and said in a very seductive whisper, "…it means more of a chance of me having you, Haruhi…" he purred silently, letting domination of a man's craving for _sexual activities_ come visible to his face.

This, though, instantly caught Hikaru's attention. And he felt that unfamiliar yet still familiar feeling of hatred and annoyance to the man. He hadn't had that feeling for several years, and it really only happened once, that was the time when they were at Pension Misuzu and they met Arai, but this time…that hatred was practically hundred times worse.

"Get your filthy hands off her." he growled and gave quite the noticeable glare to Ichiro, as he stepped over and pushed Ichiro's forehead further away from Haruhi's with two fingers.

The older man simply raised an eyebrow of amusement as he slumped back in his seat, doing his previous action of playing with the strawberry blonde's locks in between his fingers. She, obviously pleased that his attention was back on her, started to giggle like a little school-girl, whiles the messy bun'd brunette averted her gaze to the small crack on the wall, disgusted with her friend's antics.

"Oh, but if she isn't yours, then what authority do you have to protect her from someone like me?" Ichiro said, eyeing the teens at the corner of his eye. "We live in a harsh world, and unless the property is claimed yours," he said and draped an arm around the strawberry blonde, who squeaked in delighted surprise as he pulled her closer to him. "Then others are allowed to have it." he finished off.

"Don't mind Hikaru." Haruhi said as Hikaru glared daggers at the perverse man. "We're just protective towards each other. Can we get down to business now?" she said with an impatient tone.

"You're no fun, Haruhi." the man whined. "But I wonder how you are in bed?" he pondered to himself, feeling the stares of pure hatred for him by Hikaru and could hear the disgusted snort from the brunette beside him.

"Can you just shut up?" Haruhi growled and rested her chin in her palm. "You only think the most disgusting thoughts."

"I am who I am." Ichiro said and grinned. He clasped his hand together with a loud clap and looked at Haruhi straight in the eye, totally serious. "Okay, down to business. That stupid Moth gang wants to trade a few items, and a few things they have caught my interest. But, as you already know, we aren't at the best terms. That's why I need you to go." he said and rested his elbows on the table.

"Like I didn't already know that." Haruhi muttered and rolled her eyes in impatience.

"They're willing to give us about six kilos worth of fruits and vegetables, a pair of medical scissors, since our last pair recently broke, and three containers of painkillers. In return we give, five bottles of water, four kilos of meat and two bottles of wine." he said and gestured to the bottles on the table.

"Easy enough." Haruhi said and shrugged. "But what will we get for delivering?"

Ichiro smugly smirked, and the strawberry blonde rolled her eyes, knowing what he would say.

"I was thinking of giving you about a box-load of food; oatmeals, cereals, dried food, and all that kind of stuff. Plus some ammo and a new shotgun. And also…!" he said with triumph and leaned towards Haruhi again. "…You can have me!"

Haruhi kept her cold, blank look and pushed his nose with her index finger to distance the space between them, meanwhile Hikaru was practically disgusted by this behaviour.

"You do realise I have a loaded gun, right?" Hikaru merely threatened.

"I'm very well aware of that." Ichiro said and sat down in his seat again, never even glancing up at the twin's face. "Haruhi once pointed the gun at my head, the safety switch off. One small slip up and I would've been a dead man!" he laughed off like it was no big deal.

"I would've preferred you in that state…" Haruhi muttered with some malice in her voice. "Anyway, I would like to see these supplies before we leave." Haruhi politely requested, feeling somewhat bored and took out a small pocketknife from her pocket, playing with the blade in between her fingers.

Ichiro eyed the knife slightly suspiciously but then shrugged it off, knowing very well that Haruhi was great with knives, but would have killed him with a gun instead if she indeed feel the need to kill him.

"Of course." he said and leaned back more in his chair, tilting his head backwards and faced a flight of stairs. "CHIZUKO! GET YOUR ASS DOWN HERE WITH THE SUPPLIES!" he yelled rather loudly, causing the other inhabitants of the room to wince. Some soft tapping was heard against the wooden stairs, and Haruhi expected to either a drunkard or a whore to be coming down, but instead a small girl came down with a box a third of her size in her arms. This was the most…odd looking girl Haruhi, or Hikaru for that matter, had ever seen. She was quite young, perhaps twelve or thirteen, and she had naturally white hair. And then I don't mean white blonde, it was white as starlight. Another thing was her eyes. Haruhi had heard of people having heterochromia before, one of her old neighbours used to have it, but this case was completely different. Most of the time, people would have had the shades of eyes only slightly different, like one eye green and the other blue, but this girl's was different colours all together. The girl had one eye an ocean blue, with the most faintest tint of green, while the other eye was a dark chocolate brown, the eye showing the smallest trace of red mixed in with it.

Her clothes were rather ordinary, with the small tear here and there. She wore a long-sleeved blue shirt, and wore khaki shorts, her shoes white but with green outlining.

It took Haruhi a moment to realise that the girl was now standing in front of her, showing the items inside the cardboard box.

"We've made sure that the expiring dates on these items are at least two weeks away," the girl, Chizuko, said, her voicing showing faintly such an emotion of distress, like if she said something wrong she would be dead. "The shotgun and its ammo is upstairs, it is in perfectly good condition, like new."

"That's good." Haruhi said, looking back and forth between the labels of the food inside the box.

"And it will be all yours once you're done. You have another…three hours before you two have to leave, correct?" Ichiro said, giving a small pause when he read the clock on the wall.

Haruhi nodded as she stood up, placing her knife in its place.

"We should then go, can we have the supplies now?" she asked, dragging her bag off her shoulder to pack whatever item she needed to place in there. Chizuko nodded quickly, and ran up the stairs in such a speed you would think she had been training for the Olympics. She came back down again, in a more slower speed this time, careful not to damage or drop the supplies. Haruhi took her fair share of items while Hikaru did the same.

Haruhi slung her backpack over her shoulder, letting out a sigh as she stared at Ichiro, who was nibbling on the strawberry blonde's earlobe, herself being lost in the world of dreams.

"I'll see you later then." Haruhi waved off as she went for the door, Hikaru right behind her, snorting from the man's behaviour.

"Bye, Haru~!" Ichiro waved and slumped down comfortably. "Now, what do you want to do girls?" he addressed the 'whores' besides him, the strawberry blonde giggling whiles the other looked away.

* * *

The two stepped out of the stinky building that reeked of alcohol, landing their feet on the pavement outside.

"How do you stand him?" Hikaru asked bitterly, narrowing his eyes at the street before them. She sighed and gave him a blank look, almost telling him like she had heard this question a gazillion times before.

"He pays well," she said and did a mere shrug. "And if even tries to make a move I'll blow out his brains." she muttered as she started off down the street.

"I hope that day comes soon." he whispered more to himself, letting the whistling from the wind cover up his comment. He followed her patiently, and wondered what could happen during this night.

"Be aware of your surroundings," Haruhi said out of the blue, like she had just read his mind. He looked up at her confused as she continued to speak. "There are some people who thought it was better to survive on their own, so there's a chance we can see some weird lunatic on our way." she said indifferently, shrugging her shoulders while staring straight ahead.

He watched her for a moment, trying to see what kind of emotion she was feeling, but ended up failing. It was like this stuff was as easy as riding a bike for her, having it all under control but fate may give you a small accident at the odd times. After that, they kept walking without any words, the only sound filling the silence was their tapping from their footsteps. She seemed to have known this whole town off by heart; from every shortcut through alleyways to every single brick that stuck out the most tiniest fraction out of the wall.

He couldn't believe it; he was doing this, he was out risking his life for trading a few items between two groups of people. He never really thought that this was the way he would end up, doing his best just to survive through the day. Just a little more than two years ago, if he ever thought about what he would be doing at his current age, he would've thought that he was spending some of his prime years of university. But fate, destiny and reality were all sick, twisted individuals, and all of them together created the most awful things at times.

Thanks to these three individuals, he had lost the girl he loved, had nightmares of scenes of what could've happened to her for several nights, making him shake and nearly scream once he woke up. On good nights, he would dream about seeing her again, but would end up crying his heart out once he woke up for knowing the small chance of it ever happening. He remembered the first time he woke up from one of those nightmares. He had woken up, screaming bloody murder at his imagination while doing a combination of tugging at his hair while clinging onto his brother what looked like for dear life. He remembered the looks of sympathy and empathy everyone had given him, even the emotionless face of Kyouya traced some of it.

He was scared of reality. He despised reality, he hated every bit of it ever since that day. He didn't go one day without being afraid, and he was even scared to go asleep, from either the chance of being killed during his sleep or having those disgusting nightmares. It all felt like one big dream for him, and almost every single day he wished just that he would wake up again. He was surprised as he had done the few discoveries from his unconscious studying of the girl in front of him. She seemed to be afraid of nothing, even before the ordeal. But now he really wondered, was she afraid of anything? Or did trauma overwhelm her senses, and maybe she just couldn't find anything to be weak over once she had accepted reality? She has to be afraid of something, nobody is fearless.

"…Haruhi…" he meekly called out to her, his eyes drifting down to his feet. She turned her head to catch a glimpse of his somewhat troubled face, his eyes revealing approximately ninety percent of the troubles.

"Yes?" she replied, turning her head so she was watching her path once more.

"…Are you…afraid of anything?" he asked gently, lifting his gaze to try to meet hers, but only met the back of her head.

"Why do you ask?" she retorted, never leaving her glued eyes from the road.

"It's odd. You have changed, but in a way you haven't. Your weakness isn't thunderstorms anymore, so it must be something else." he said. "Nobody is completely fearless, just some are more scared than others." he continued to speak. "There must be something that gives you horrible dreams at times, or making you shake and tremble until you can't control your body." he finished.

There was a silence for a few moments, the tapping on pavement echoing more than ever.

"That's a question you hear a lot in the community." Haruhi spoke up, breaking the silence. "Most would say they were afraid of death or those infected people on the other side of the walls, but I can't get afraid by those things, it's just a thing you have to control over. I realised my fear after I figured out the true meaning of the phrase 'you never knew you had something until its gone'." she said, shifting the weight of her bag. "I'm afraid to lose dad, Miya, anyone in the community; to sum it up, I'm afraid of becoming alone." she said in her regular serious tone, though if she revealed her true feelings, she would have broken down right then and there. Hikaru's eyes widened, not actually believing that she would say something like that as her weakness. He didn't say a word, but remained silent for her to continue on. "There's nothing left to live for if everyone you love is gone, what's the point in trying to survive then?" she questioned and turned her head to see his face, seeing the faint shock from the answers she had been giving.

"…becoming alone…" he repeated, letting the words echo through his head. 'Alone' was such a familiar word, yet it was a stranger to him.

"Yeah," she said softly. "They can take my health, my strength, all of my belongings, but if they hurt or take away the ones I love, then I'll kill whoever or whatever did it."

* * *

"Look, Takashi! They have apples!" Hunny cheered and pointed to the tree in the communal garden. Mori grunted and followed his cousin that was happily skipping off to the apple tree. Even though it was late at night, the garden for the people looked beautiful in the moonlight. It was season for most fruits, and a lot of it already had been picked, but there was still plenty left. The plants' leaves were all a lush green, and the former club members and the blonde haired girl were scattered about, either picking or observing the growth of the plants.

Miya had a bright smile on her face, collecting different kinds of edibles. She had mostly collected strawberries, her main purpose of wanting to come here, but she had also taken blueberries, raspberries and other kinds of berries. Why berries? Because she loves berries, that's why. And it's a good travel snack.

She giddily walked along the paths that was in between the small fields, looking around at the hosts' doings. Hunny, as mentioned earlier, was picking apples from the apple tree with Mori, Tamaki was taking all kinds of random vegetables and fruits because 'he wants to be a good father' while Kyouya observed, and Kaoru was sitting on the side. He was twirling a leaf between his fingers, staring at it in deep thought. She raised an eyebrow and went over to him, plopping down besides him.

"What're ya thinkin' about?" she asked casually, studying the leaf he held.

"Nothing, really…" he mumbled, never averting his gaze from the dancing leaf. She responded by giving him a blank look, her eyes half-lidded while her mouth was a thin line.

"For somebody who's thinking about nothing you sure are zoning out a lot." she said and placed her hands on ground behind her, leaning her upper-body weight on them. "Lemme guess, you're worried or something about your brother." she said and let her eyes wander to the sky, seeing all of the twinkling stars and letting the moon's rays reflect on her eyes. He stole a quick glimpse of her face and sighed.

"Yeah, something like that." he said and stopped twirling the leaf. "All day he has been…odd. And I know he's hiding something, he knows something but he's not telling me."

"How do you know he's hiding something?" Miya asked, not really sounding interested at all, but deep down she did really know how he could tell.

"I guess it's a twin's instinct." he replied, shrugging. "I could tell, we're just that close."

"Haru did mention something about you two having a weird fake taboo relationship…"

"Huh, yeah we did, thought it was just an act in our club."

There was a thick silence between them, the moon shining down its reflecting light upon the two. Miya let the corners of her mouths turn upwards as she took out a few of the berries she picked.

"Here, even though it sounds lame, berries usually does make me feel better." she said as she stretched out a palm with several berries on it to him. He studied the small fruits in her hand, a questioning brow raised, but shrugged and took two of them, popping them in his mouth. He savoured the sweetness and Miya smiled brightly, eating the remaining berries in her palm.

"Don't worry about your brother, I'm sure he'll eventually tell you-" _'If he does I'll beat his retarded ass…'_ "-or he'll figure out whatever that's troubling him on his own." she said and smiled reassuringly. Kaoru flickered his eyes up to the blonde's emerald green ones, trying to found out what she really meant.

"He's just not very good with his emotions when it comes to things, that's why I'm a bit worried, that's all." Kaoru said indifferently and shrugged.

"As I said, everything will be fine." she said again. "Even the most hardest hardships has a positive side to it." He only shrugged again in response, he didn't even really understand what she was trying to do to help him.

"Miya-chan! Kao-chan!"

The two of them looked up, seeing Hunny waving from the branch he was sitting on in the apple tree.

"Look at how many apples there is!" he shouted cheerfully, and moments later Tamaki bounced towards the tree like a happy little puppy.

* * *

Haruhi stopped walking at the end of the street, staring at the slightly battered, but still readable, street sign that sat on the corner. They were getting closer to the more dangerous part of town. It wasn't only dangerous because this was one of the areas where a lot of the infected, especially Crackers, occupied, but it was also dangerous because there were many desperate surviving madmen in that area. These desperate madmen would be people who thought they would survive better on their own. They would try to kill anyone who could have something on them to help their survival, and because of the lack of socially development and loneliness they would be complete killer-machine nutjobs. Haruhi had encountered a few before, and every single one she had to kill. It didn't feel right killing someone that was healthy physically, but unfortunately their mental health would only cause more harm than good if they stayed alive, so she would kill them. She felt hurt deep down, but in a way she did help them. She ended their pain, the pain that she would always see in their eyes.

"Haruhi? Why did you stop?" Hikaru asked from behind her, his face showing a mixture of concern and confusion. She turned her head a fraction, eyeing him from the corner of her eye. '_Why did I bring him with me?'_ she questioned herself, knowing full well that if they did encounter one of those lunatics, it wouldn't end well if they attacked him. She let her eyes wander back to the sign, sighing.

"We're entering a more dangerous district, so be cautious of your surroundings." she said clearly.

"Oh…okay…" he said and put his hand in his pocket, feeling the gun that was inside. She squinted her eyes and pointed upwards to a street.

"We'll need to head that way, and then travel about six kilomet-"

**WHACK**

"GIMME THAT BAG!"

Haruhi in an instant spun on her heel, pulling out her gun and aiming it at whoever attacked the person behind her. Once she had done her rotation, she saw Hikaru on the ground, his gun a good few feet away from him since he dropped it, staring in fear at the pointy modified weapon of a rake held by the attacker. The attacker was an old man, he had a messy beard of that looked like a birds nest, his hair was tangled, knotty and it reached down to his shoulders, his clothes were ragged and scruffy, his eyes bloodshot, and the rake that was in his left hand had sharpened points, whiles his right hand was in his pocket. To quickly sum it up, he looked like an homeless man having drug hallucinations.

"Sir, put that down now, or otherwise I have to shoot." she said calmly, but her face said otherwise. The man jerked his head up, like he had just realised she was there. A wicked smile came to his face, revealing yellow rotten teeth with tonnes of holes.

"That's a nice looking gun you got there," he said somewhat threateningly, doing a small nod with his head to emphasise his point. "Too bad that I have a better one!" he yelled, and before Haruhi could even blink, the man pulled out a small handgun from his pocket and shot at her hand. Luckily enough, it only caused her weapon to fly away from her hands.

She stared at the gun that was approximately fifteen feet away with some panic, before she turned her face back to the man. He smirked, and kicked Hikaru quite hardly in the gut, causing him to double over, before he went over and pointed his rake at Haruhi as he took slow steps closer to her.

"Tsk, tsk, tsk, such a pretty little doll face as well," the man sighed. "Oh well, let's get this over with!" he added and kicked Haruhi down to the ground with a quick flick. She glared at him, but he acted oblivious and pushed her with his foot so she laid on her stomach, using one foot to keep her wrist trapped while the other rested on her lower back. He yanked the bag off her back, smirking the smile of the devil. "You should at least let me play with you first…" he said as he gently stroked Haruhi's back with the sharp points of his rake.

"HIKARU, FUCKING SHOOT HIM!" Haruhi bellowed, and with that Hikaru scrambled over to his gun. Just as Hikaru flicked the safety switch and turned to aim at the man, he heard something he never wanted to hear. A cry of pain from Haruhi.

The man's wicked grin grew wider by the second as he dug his pointy rake into her flesh, blood oozing out. She bit her lip, and tried to not scream from the pain, but let out instead muffled and strangled vowels.

The gun shook from Hikaru's shaking hand while he watched with eyes wide of terror, seeing the puddle grow by the second.

"Yes! Feel the pain, doll face, because if you don't you won't ever know what life is about." the man chuckled and pressed his weapon harder against her, earning a stifled cry . "Feel the pain or otherwi-"

**PCHWO**

The man fell to the ground, becoming limp as the new hole on his forehead dripped out small droplets of red liquid, mixing together with the splotches on the ground. Hikaru panted, dropping the gun from his violently shaking hands.

"HARUHI!" he cried, and stood up so quickly that he only managed to stumble towards her. She lifted herself up from the pavement, resting on her hands and knees. She bit her lip to stifle her cries of agony, and did a very good job at it, but worried about something greater than the blood pouring out of her back.

"…Hikaru, help me up…" she mumbled. He obliged, and gently hoisted her up.

"…what the hell am I going to do?…" he cursed under his breath, not having a single clue of what to do.

"Grab your backpack and run." Haruhi said seriously, and he only stared at her in shock.

"What the hell are you talking about?! We need to take care of tha-"

_…CRACK…CRACK…CRACK…_

"I SAID FUCKING RUN!" she screamed and grabbed his hand, running in top speed and grabbed her bag and weapon on her way as the Crackers and other infected people crawled out of the buildings, hearing a new meal nearby.

* * *

**There you have it folks, this week's chapter. It will probably be more exciting next week, but oh well, sometimes you need boring chapters to fill out and get the storyline moving. :P**

**Until next time~!**


	8. Chapter 8: Surprises All The Same

**Hey guys! ^^ Here's another chapter, though it is short. Sorry, but my writing time was almost cut up in half this week because I went to camp (which wasn't very pleasant…). And I also went to a party on Saturday, so another three hours of my time was gone there. Plus, it is also a very well-known fact that I am the most creative with my writing on Fridays (but I spent it napping since I barely had any sleep while at camp), because my mind is completely blank during weekends. I'll make it up to you guys next week by writing an extra long chapter. How about 7,000+ words? Cool, we have an agreement. :3**

**So, a lot of you guys have been saying that this fanfic is a lot like Highschool of The Dead. And well, all I have to say is… THIS IS STILL ALL MY ORIGINAL WORK. Sorry to say, but I have never watched Highschool of The Dead (okay, I watched the first half of episode one before I did this document, but I'm not completely lying). I wasn't planning to watch for another while longer, considering it is categorised under Ecchi.**

**Please do vote on my poll that I have set up on my profile! In case you didn't know, I have set up a poll on my profile to ask what I should write when I am done with this fanfic. Only four of you guys did vote (and I'm very grateful of you're one of them) but I would like to see more people voting. There is 7 choices, and you're allowed to vote on two. So far, from those four people, you guys want to have my original work. PLEASE DO VOTE! :D**

**Okay, that's enough Author Notes, and if you read through all of them you deserve a cookie. Here's your chapter now.**

* * *

They stopped in an old, abandoned alleyway, panting from their sudden sprint. Haruhi rested her hands on her knees, breathing ten times heavier than the person besides her, and he continued to look frantically around, especially giving worried glances to her. He wanted to make sure they were safe, for the moment at least.

Once everything was clear, he let his eyes fall onto her, specifically her back. The back of her shirt was torn and there were open dark red lines for wounds on her flesh. It had stop pouring out the blood, but whatever piece of the shirt that crossed the lines soaked up the remaining crimson liquid. She straightened herself, visibly wincing. She balled her hands into fists and raised it to her mouth, biting her thumb to muffle her cries of pain.

"…Haruhi…" Hikaru said meekly, his eyes softening.

"I haven't even made it to the Moth gang to deliver their goods and already my skin is ripped open." Haruhi muttered into her fist, her teeth clenched and her eyes tightly shut, doing everything in her power for the pain not to take over. "I can feel that it needs to be stitched up." she added as she turned around to face him, opening one eye to look at him.

Hikaru didn't know what to say, or do. He was just stuck, he couldn't do a thing, and the only thing he felt like he was capable of doing was to cry. But he knew with the circumstances that it would be the worst thing to at the moment, so held back, but he still felt guilty, because it all felt like it was his own fault.

"…I'm sorry, Haruhi…" he said quietly, lowering his head in shame and brought up a hand to tug on his red locks in distress.

"Don't be," she snapped. He looked up at her in surprise, but his face soften when he saw the sincere look on her face. She still kept biting her thumb from the pain, but she was the one who looked apologetic. "I was the one who let you come in the first place. But, if you didn't come, I might've been as good as dead right now. So if anything, I'm the one who's sorry but I'm thankful as well. Thank you." she said and gave a small reassuring smile. He didn't smile back, he dropped his hand down and his face did say he calmed down from his initial shock and sadness, but he still felt guilty on the inside. There was a silence in between them, the only thing that made noise was Haruhi's shifting when she sat down on the ground, and her still slightly laboured breathing.

"Haruhi…are you okay?" Hikaru asked gently, kneeling besides her to have eye contact. She looked up to his concerned face, and smiled weakly while nodding slowly.

"Yeah, I am. I just think that the wounds are having…a…toll…on me…" she faltered as her eyelids turned heavier, her body falling down to the ground due to the awful thing called gravity. Hikaru immediately panicked and caught her in his arms before she fell to the cold ground.

"Haruhi?!"

* * *

"Look at how many apples we have, Takashi!" Hunny exclaimed as he held up a plastic bag filled with red apples up to Mori's face.

"Ah." he said back, keeping up with his usual stoic exterior.

"Maybe tomorrow we can ask Haru to bake an apple-pie!" Miya chirped, carrying two bags of fruit and vegetables up the stairs to their apartment. She came to the top and started to search her pockets when she came closer to the door.

"Yay! Pie!" Hunny cheered as he waited patiently to go back inside the apartment on Mori's shoulders. Miya smiled at his peppiness, but frowned once she discovered she had troubles finding her key by only using one hand, constantly switching hands to hold the bags.

"Kaoru, can you hold these while I look for my keys?" she asked, using her puppy dog eyes to him. He shrugged and took the plastic bags from her arms. She smiled in appreciation and went for her hunt for the keys.

"Did you even lock the door when we left?" Kyouya inquired, raising his eyebrow.

If life was an anime, Miya could tell that every single person occupying the hallway (except Kyouya) would sweat-drop. Okay, so sometimes Miya ain't the brightest of them all in some circumstances.

"Ah yeah, I forgot that detail…" she said and sheepishly turned to the Shadow King. Her eyes then expanded to an inhumanly size, a realisation hitting her in the head like a pile of bricks.

_'Crap! What will I say if both Haru and Hikaru aren't there?! If only Haru went, refusing to bring that redhead with her, then I don't need to explain a thing, but if he's gone as well… Well, I'm fricken screwed then, the secret will definitely be revealed… Ah shit, what'll happen then? AND DIDN'T WE MAKE THAT KYOUYA DUDE AN ASSISTANT TO THE COUNCIL MEMBERS TODAY?! Now I'm officially screwed, unless he loves her (in a friend kind of way, of course) that much…' _she thought rapidly as beads of sweat were visibly trailing down her face.

All former host members stared curiously at the girl in front of them, her facial expressions changing a thousand miles a minute. At one point she seemed nervous, then angry, then scared and then a really odd combo of all three, and then the circle traveled through again. They could obviously tell that she was having a confliction within herself.

"Miya, what're you thinking about?" Tamaki asked quietly, a bit scared of her answer. Why was he scared? It's kind of obvious, this girl is probably two hundred times stronger than him, handles weapons VERY well, can give you glares that would make you melt in fright (he received one of those earlier), and can probably kill him with a single punch in the face.

"Nothing!" she said hesitantly, adding a small nervous laugh. "I'll just open the door!" she laughed nervously as she turned the door-handle, praying to God that Hikaru was still at home. "We're home!" she announced loudly, but instead of being greeted back, a certain former okama peered his head over the corner with a very stern look on his face.

"Miya, I need to talk to you." he said calmly, and even though Miya was smiling, she was getting shivers down her spine.

"Yes, Ranka!" she exclaimed, the nervousness very clear in her voice. The hosts stared curiously as she took off her shoes and jacket, then proceeding to walk with a skip in her step to Ranka, who was waiting in front of the bathroom door. (Since when did a bathroom become the room to have serious talks in?)

The hosts never left their spots by the front door until the bathroom door clicked shut, wondering why Ranka looked so serious. The ones with bags of food went to the kitchen to put it away, while Kyouya and Tamaki headed for the living room.

"Hikaru, how boring was it to stay home alone with Ranka- WHERE IS THE DEVIL TWIN?!"

* * *

"Come on, Haruhi, wake up!" Hikaru said somewhat frantically as he patted her cheek lightly, his eyes widening a fraction for every second that went past with her laying unconscious. She had totally blacked out, no sign consciousness apparent to whatever he did. He had no idea of what to do; he was in abandoned alleyway in a city he had no direction in whatsoever; he had less ammo and weapons than before, since he accidentally left his gun behind when they were running for their life; the girl he loved was laying unconscious due to exhaustion and blood loss on his lap, with deep wounds on her back; and who can forget that teeny little detail of that there is flesh-eating monsters crawling around all over the city, yet alone the world.

"Please, Haruhi, wake up…" he pleaded, feeling the tears stinging in his eyes. He stopped with his attempts to wake her up and gingerly stroked her cheek with his thumb, noting the small salty droplets that landed on her right cheek that came from his eyes. He'd simply had to wait until something happened.

He jerked up his head, a look of terror on his face, at the sound of some unpleasant moaning at the end of the alleyway. At a closer inspection, he could see what was the cause of the unpleasant moaning, and it was an newly infected person, standing there and watching the passed out girl and distressed boy with a slight tug of a wicked smile on the corner of its lips. Its eyes widened in bliss as it saw the small blotches of blood on the ground and two defenceless people not too far away from it, seemingly ready to be eaten.

A small, blood-curdling cackle escaped its mouth as it watched hungrier to its awaiting meal by the second. Whiles it was approaching closer to the two teens, Hikaru pulled out Haruhi's gun and aimed at the beast, but his fear of it coming closer kept stopping him from pulling the trigger.

It was only a foot away from the two of them, towering over the brunette and redhead as its wicked smile only grew wider, a few drops blood dripping down from the corner of its mouth. It was about to lunge itself onto them when what seemed to be the impossible stop it.

It was shot in the head, but not by Hikaru, and fell to the ground. Hikaru scrambled away from it by instinct, pulling Haruhi along with him gently.

"Ya know, newbie, it's not the smartest thing not to attack an infected, especially while looking weak and scared."

Hikaru jerked his head up, to see a shadowy figure sitting on a window sill on the top floor of the building in front of him, its legs dangling playfully by the wall. From the voice, and the ebony hair he could make out from the dim moonlight, it was obviously female. He couldn't see it, but he could tell that she was smirking down at him.

"You're going to the Moth gang, right? You're not too far away, you'll come there quicker if you go down Main Street, and then turn left, right, left again, and then you should see a door on a building with a picture of a moth." she said. "I would also recommend for you to carry her, considering she won't be conscious till another few hours."

She giggled scornfully while she stood up on the sill, never taking her eyes off him. Hikaru still stared up at her in shock, and squinted his eyes to see her face through the darkness of the night.

"Who are you?" he asked, furrowing his brows.

"Does it matter?" she asked back, giggling more. "No one knows my real name except me, but from what I've heard people call me The Queen of The Shadows." she said, leaning against the wall besides her.

_'Queen of The Shadows? Well, that sounds corny…'_ Hikaru thought, letting his curious expression turn blank.

"You're probably thinking that it sounds corny? Yeah, I know, but oh well." she said and shrugged, sounding pretty bored. "Sorry, gotta go, newbie. Tootles!" And with that, she disappeared into the depths of the darkness inside the building.

* * *

"ERMAHGERD, ERMAHGERD! WHERE'S THAT DEVIL WITH MY HARUHI?!" Tamaki screeched as he ran around the living area like a fruit loop, overly dramatically cupping his face while yelling like the painting 'The Scream'.

"Tamaki, you're offending retarded people right now." Kyouya said indifferently, noting the very obvious vein pop on Ranka. Tamaki halted in his race against the wind, and sat down reluctantly next to his best friend, letting out small whimpers about his 'daughter'.

The moment Tamaki had noticed Hikaru's absence in the living room, he ran around the house looking for him. He ran to Haruhi's bedroom to check if the 'devil' was in there 'unpurifying' his angelic 'daughter', only to realise neither of the two were in there. Everyone became visibly worried, except Kyouya and Mori, but were worried nonetheless, about their friends' sudden absence. Everyone, except Miya, who was biting her nails in nervousness, started to question Ranka of where they were, who was beating more sweat than somebody obese running a marathon.

"Where is Haru-chan, Miya-chan?" Hunny asked, his bottom lip quivering and small droplets of tears forming in the corner of his eyes, worried for his friends. It was really late, which Miya now questioned why she wanted to go out earlier, and it made everyone wonder of what had happened to the two during such an hour.

"Well, she's just, I don't know, maybe she and him went to pick dung beetles or flies," Miya rambled in a slur, panicking more by the second of what to answer. She obviously knew they wouldn't fall for any of the excuses, but her mind was juggling with thoughts and her mouth automatically voiced whatever came across her mind at that moment.

"You do know," Kaoru said suddenly from where he sat at the end of the table, everyone's attention at him. "I knew Hikaru knew something I didn't, and he wanted to hide it. That thing he knew obviously has something to do with Haruhi, and Miya knows about it. Why would she then act they way she did this morning when dragging Hikaru to the bathroom?"

Everyone stared at the younger twin surprised, once again forgetting about his ability to think rationally, one of the differences between the identical individuals.

_'…Ah, we're screwed…'_ the blonde female and the former cross-dresser thought simultaneously, their expectation level of coming up with a reasonable believable excuse dropping down to zero.

"Might as well just tell 'em…" Miya sighed, slumping her shoulders in defeat.

* * *

Haruhi sleepily opened her eyes so they were half-lidded, not aware of her surroundings. '…Why do I feel so weak?…' she thought, feeling drained and noting all the pain in her body, specifically her back. She blinked a few times and then opened her eyes wide, even though her eyelids felt as heavy as lead.

"Eh, Hikaru?" Haruhi questioned surprised, realising only now that she was being carried by him, piggyback style.

"Hey Haruhi!" he chirped, turning his head a fraction to see her puzzled face. "You passed out earlier, I think mostly due to your sudden blood loss from when that guy ripped open your skin, so I decided to carry you. And I'm doing it this way because of your back and such, plus it would be just easier for long distance."

"Oh… Thanks…" she said, blinking slightly curiously with her chocolate brown orbs. "You seem rather cheerful suddenly, seemingly since before I blacked out you were almost crying." she noted, raising an eyebrow. He merely shrugged in response.

"Dunno, I guess I'm just happy that you're awake again. You've been out for a few hours." he said, staring straight ahead at the road in front of them. She continued to stare at him curiously for a few moments, cocking her head slightly. A thought struck her.

"Do you even know the way to the Moth gang?"

"Some girl suddenly came and told me where to go, then just disappeared. She named herself Queen of the Shadows or along those lines."

"You met the Queen?" Haruhi asked, astonished. "Everyone talks about her all the time, saying that they've seen her, much less as to talk to her!"

"Didn't see her face though. Too dark." he pointed out.

"Who cares? No one has." she said. "You can let me down now."

"Nah, don't wanna risk it with you passing out again yet." he smirked. "Besides, don't you like this?" he added, starting to get cocky while turning his eyes towards her, seeing a small tinge of pink on her cheeks.

* * *

"THEY'RE OUT DOING WHAT?!"

Miya flinched and backed her head away from the over dramatic blonde and younger twin's faces, who had practically jumped up in surprise once Ranka and her had dropped the bomb. Those two weren't the only ones who were surprised, Hunny almost started to cry and Mori and Kyouya both widened their eyes at the news.

"Hey, it isn't my fault that your brother has insomnia or whatever so he can't sleep and he found out!" Miya yelled, glaring at the two panicking idiots. "If he wasn't awake, or just minded his own business, he wouldn't be in this mess."

"But you keep letting him get more involved? Very smart move." Kaoru said, crossing his arms while giving a sharp glare at the blonde girl, who happily returned it to him.

"My precious daughter…" Tamaki whimpered in the background, sitting by his all famous corner of woe, having no more energy to run. "…Becoming a smuggler without notifying daddy…"

Ranka sighed, leaning his back against the wall behind him. He couldn't believe it, the well-kept secret had been revealed to a total of six people within 24 hours, and it could be dangerous for all of them to know. And Haruhi, who carries the full weight of it all, may be the one harmed the most.

_'A gut feeling of mine says that things aren't going to become pretty…'_

* * *

**There you have it, your short chapter. I'll make it up for you next week, okay? :3**

**Please do vote on my poll that I have on my account, I really want to know what ****_you _****want me to write next. Hey, how often to you receive actual choices of what you want to read from authors? This just seems more fair, ya know? :D**

**Ugh, I'm dead right now, it's like two am here… SEE WHAT I DO FOR YOU GUYS? I AM SACRIFICING MY PRECIOUS SLEEP FOR YOU GUYS, SO FEEL HONOURED! xD**

**See you later guys~!**


	9. AUTHOR NOTES

**Hehe, hi guys, here we are again with just the plain author notes. Don't worry, the chapter is going to come this weekend! I just wanted to mention something.**

**So, I saw that I received a new review for this story, and I realised they were criticising my writing. Now, I don't mind if you guys criticise my writing (I welcome it with open arms) considering I am only thirteen and I literally only started to write stories since Easter, so I am pretty new at this. But please do it nicely, and (excuse my language) don't be a rude bitch. This person named themselves as 'The Fun' and they were criticising ONE spelling mistake I did, and that was an autocorrect fault. I am a really rapid typer on my iPad, so obviously my words get jumbled up and autocorrect fix it. They said that I wrote 'hasn't' instead of 'haven't', that was a simple autocorrect thing, and they went as far as to insult my writing and friends with that simple thing.**

**I do understand the term 'Haters Gonna Hate', but if you're going to criticise my writing, please prove the following:**

**1) You're older than me, which means you have more experience about writing from school.**

**2) Make sure that you do indeed have better writing than me (and let me see it), because I have seen some people who can't write for crap. I am not saying that I am the best, but I've seen people who are worse, especially for those around my age group.**

**3) Do realise that some tiny spelling mistakes can be from autocorrect, because my spelling is pretty good for my age (from what I've heard at least).**

**4) Criticise nice and politely, use some manners, and DO NOT insult me for being a writer (considering I never said I was one, and if I did I only meant here on FanFiction) and ESPECIALLY DO NOT insult my friends who you have NEVER met.**

**5) If you criticise, make sure that it is something I unknowingly repeat, not ONE FUCKING SPELLING MISTAKE.**

**Please follow ALL these things before you criticise. If you're my age or younger (which probably is rare) and you follow number 2, then you're allowed to criticise as well, because I have seen some people who are like 17 who can't write a single sentence without screwing it up, just do follow number 3 and 4 please.**

**If you still decide to be rude as fuck to me, do realise that my dad is ****_REALLY_**** good with computers, including tracking people down. And all I have to add to that is that I have an axe in my shed ready to use. Plus my best friend is very sensitive when it comes to people insulting me (if you want an example go to my story The New Beginning and go to chapter 31) and she's very harsh. Trust me, if someone insults us in any way, you're dead. So if you don't want to go to an early grave, DON'T BE A RUDE FUCK.**

**Okay guys, sorry for taking your time and excuse my ****_colourful_**** language, but I really wanted you guys to know and behave if you guys criticise.**

**And because karma's a bitch (and I am bored), I am going to paste in the review and I would like to see how many people agrees that it is rude as hell:**

**The Fun:**

**_Really? "The trains hasn't probably moved"_**

**_Are you kidding!? How about- "the trains probably haven't moved" and ugh! You call yourself a writer? Wow- how pathetic._**

**_No wonder all you have is your fantasies,_**

**_Your friends probably ARE your crackers!_**

**_LOL XD LOL XD LOL XD_**

**Now how many people agrees that this was the most rudest first criticism review known to man? I do at least. And so far as I am concerned, he (or she) has NO right to criticise since obviously they can't write themselves.**

**Sorry guys, chapter will be up this weekend! See ya guys~~! ;3**

**(By the way, I am deleting that review because it has NO right to stay there along with your guys' good reviews! :D KEEP 'EM COMING, MORE REVIEWS MORE MOTIVATION TO WRITE! xD)**


	10. Chapter 9: Hardships

**HELLO EVERYONE! I AM BACK, FINALLY. DON'T WORRY, I DID NOT GIVE UP ON THIS STORY OR DIE OR WHATEVER, IT'S JUST THAT HOLIDAYS MAKE ME LAZYYYY~! Plus other things distracted me.**

**I should seriously stop making promises I can't keep, but I did keep one promise, and that was that I would give you a 7,000+ words chapter.**

**Guess what, my little minions?**

**THIS IS 9,500+ WORDS!**

**And oh my god I have such a headache…**

**Anyways, before I continue, I'd like to quickly mention that you guys should vote on my poll (which I ****_still_**** have open). I added another choice, though most people might not recognise the item I'd like to use for that Ouran Crossover, and you're allowed to vote on three choices now. Please do vote, because after I have had ten voters (currently only on 7) I am planning to delete all of the choices that have no votes on them. Then I thought once I come up twenty voters I'll delete the less popular ones so that everyone can vote on the final choices and then I can start planning out my future long-term fanfic… PLEASE DO VOTE! :D**

**Well, I won't deprive you off from the chapter anymore. ENJOY!**

**WARNING: Contains Course Language.**

* * *

"We're here!"

"Good, can you finally let me down so I can go inside and do the talking?"

Hikaru looked back at the girl he had been carrying on his back, her face showing nothing but annoyance and lack of patience. He relented and put her down, herself sighing in relief.

"Let's get this over and done with." Haruhi sighed, grabbing one of the rucksacks that Hikaru had carried with his hand. _'Huh, he's barely beating a sweat,' _Haruhi thought, watching her companion slinging on his bag onto his back. _'Pretty strong, not bad. He did just carry all of our stuff and me at the same time… Oh god, I can imagine Miya's reaction when I'll tell her what happened. All starry-eyed while hearts appear from nowhere… Yeah, I think I just won't tell her.' _

Haruhi opened the door in front of them, which had its signature picture of a moth painted on it, and saw what she expected. Unlike the other gang, this place was decently normal, and everyone did what they could for survival. She had made a few friends here, but there's always that one annoyingly clingy one…

"OMIGOD, HARU!"

"No, wait– RIMA–"

Before Hikaru would even be able to say 'sushi', a ditzy cinnamon-haired girl engulfed Haruhi into a strangling hug, being completely oblivious to the brunette's protests.

"WE HAVEN'T SEEM EACH OTHER IN LIKE, FOREVER!" the girl squealed, tightening her grip around the injured teen's neck.

"…Rima…can't breathe…"

"Whoops, sorry." the girl called Rima said apologetically, retracting her arms back to her sides and smiled sweetly to her brunette friend, who was massaging her neck due to the tight grip around it earlier.

"Your grip is as strong as ever," Haruhi commented, turning her eyes to the girl in front of her that had a sheepish smile on her face.

"Hehe, yeah…" she chuckled, avoiding eye contact of the brunette. After probably ten seconds of awkward silence, Hikaru in the background questioning everything that was going on right now, Rima looked at him, a confused expression on her angelic face while the twinkle in her eyes said otherwise."Haru, who's this?"

"Him?" Haruhi stated, looking back at the confused redhead behind her. "His name is Hikaru, he's a close friend–"

"Close, you say?" Rima interrupted, a playful smirk on her face, making her seem scarier than what she seemed before. "Well, congra- HOLY FUCKING CRAP! WHAT THE FUCK HAPPENED TO YOUR BACK, HARU?!" Rima shouted, seemingly now only noticing the ginormous blood stains all over Haruhi's clothes, plus the pretty noticeable wounds on her back. "SOMEBODY GET THE DOCTORS! WE NEED TO STITCH HARU UP!" Rima yelled frantically, running through the room, oblivious to the fact a man wearing glasses that was approaching Haruhi.

"Rima, you can shut up now," the man said, leading Haruhi to a room that had a red plus sign on the door. Rima halted in her running, but her eyes brimmed with tears.

"But what happens if it's serious?!" she screamed, chewing her nails.

"Just some simple stitching, Rima." Haruhi said before stepping inside the room, the man, presumably a doctor, closed the door behind her while rolling his eyes.

"But I can't help it if I'm worried…" Rima sniffled, looking sadly down to the floor. Her head then perked up, all signs of crying gone. "So!" she exclaimed and whipped around to face the redhead behind her, smiling with all her innocence. "How long have you known Haru, hmm?" she inquired, stepping closer to the boy.

Hikaru backed up a step as the woman came nearer, a sly smirk on her face as she brought up her face close to his, their noses almost touching. As her smirk turned slyer by the second, Hikaru only stared at her like she had unknown germs on her face.

"Um, we've known each other since our first year of high school-"

"Oh my god, really?" the girl interrupted, astonished by the fact but kept her composure. "Are you guys like lovers or something?" By that comment, Hikaru's face turned to such a deep red that the world would be amazed by the new colour.

"No!" he shouted bashfully, eyes wide as saucers. The girl in front of him didn't even flinch at his sudden outburst, and continued to just stare curiously at him, her eyes showing several questions ready to be answered.

"Do you like Haru?"

* * *

"You better be back in an hour!" Ichiro barked at the silver-haired girl that was opening the door out, ready to do some hunting through the city.

"I will, I just need to get some new shoelaces," Chizuko answered, not showing any emotion on her indifferent facade. "I'll be back in half an hour at earliest."

"Good!" Ichiro called back, but this time didn't seem to pay attention. "So, who wants to play later on?" he asked to the girls besides him. The strawberry-blonde's face lit up in joy, while the brunette only faced the opposite direction covering her mouth, feeling like she was about to throw up. Chizuko scrunched up her face in disgust, but walked through the door and shut it behind her, not wanting to witness any more action she already had.

She sighed and looked around her, in case there were any monsters lurking around. Once she had indeed made sure that there was none, she sprinted down the street. It may had looked like she was alone, but she knew she wasn't.

She ducked into an alleyway and just stood there to catch her breath, even though she wasn't the least tired from that run at all.

"Chizu!"

The twelve year old looked up, an expression blanker than blank on her face, to see a teenage girl hanging upside down by a rope tied by a window sill, hanging Spiderman-style. The teenage girl had jet black hair, mint green eyes, and a cheerful smile on her face. Her clothes were slightly worn out, but nothing to the extreme, and by the knot from the rope on the window sill laid a brown backpack with several key-chains on it, giving the bag a faint wow factor.

"Hi Kiome," Chizuko simply greeted, locking her eyes at the raven-haired girl who was lowering herself to the ground. "Do you have my stuff?"

The dark-haired girl landed her feet on the ground, and scowled at the twelve year old in front of her. Without ever faltering her vision, she yanked on the rope she held in her hand. Chizuko looked up, and saw that the vibration from the yank caused the backpack to fall from its spot. Kiome caught her belongings in one swift movement, her eyes never needing to be taken off on the girl in front of her.

"Yes, I did," she snarled, narrowing her eyes. "They don't call me the Queen of the Shadows for nothing."

"Yeah yeah," Chizuko said indifferently, waving a dismissive hand. "You don't need to rub your identity in my face, you do that practically every single time."

The raven girl rolled her eyes and threw the bag down to the ground, watching the twelve year old kneel in front of it and unpack. She watched as the silver-haired girl rummaged through her personal items, trying to find her own stuff, and Kiome wondered how an orphan, five years younger than herself, became the only person in this cursed world to know her real identity, not to mention the only person to know how her face looked like.

"How's that bite of yours? Are you still yet to believe my theory?" Kiome asked, staring up to the shining moon. Chizuko stopped for a moment and turned her head towards the teen behind her, never meeting her eyes.

"For each and every day that pass I start to believe in that theory of yours more," she said, and added a sigh while rolling up her sleeve to reveal the faint chomp mark on her forearm. "It's been almost a week, yet no signs of the infection have appeared. By now I should be so weak that I can't even walk, but I don't feel any different."

"I told you, you're immune," Kiome replied, letting her eyes wander down to the girl again. "Think of it as a blessing, you don't have to worry about turning to one of them anymore. Heck, maybe you can go to some scientists and try to make a vaccine."

"And where exactly can I find these scientists?" Chizuko questioned, sarcasm dripping in her voice as her face screamed unamused.

"I've heard that there are some in some community not to far away from here," Kiome said, showing a bit of hope. "They've been trying for sometime to get a vaccine, but nothing works. Maybe you can go and they can finally make it."

"Hm, maybe." Chizuko said, turning her attention back to the bag in front of her.

* * *

"How can you be fine with this?!"

"It's Haru's choice if she wants to be and stay as a smuggler, so I can't do anything about it."

"Okay, yes I know Haruhi is stubborn and my brother is the same, he might've just forcefully stayed here, but do you have to just let them do this with open arms?!"

"HOW MANY FREAKING TIMES DO I HAVE TO TELL YOU? IT'S NOT MY CHOICE!"

"YOU CAN AT LEAST DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT!"

The remaining of the former Host Club minus Kaoru sat in the living room with Ranka, watching a movie on DVD on the small TV that inhabited a small space in the corner of the room, letting the hot-headed Miya and worried younger twin bicker in the room next to them. They had realised _long_ ago that there was no point to talk further about the subject until the two involved came back, so they sat back and relaxed for a moment. Of course, the constant yelling and bickering from the female blonde and redhead caused a vein to snap on everybody, so they shoved the two out of the room. They could still hear them, it was a small apartment after all, but at least it wasn't as annoying.

"My god, Miya seems to be an a roll today." Ranka sighed, crossing his arms as he tried to listen to the character dialogue in the movie.

"Kaoru seems to be close to an emotional breakdown too," Kyouya smirked, and averted his onyx eyes away from the TV-screen to his blonde best friend. "Don't you agree, Tamaki?"

"Mm…" Tamaki hummed in agreement, acting serious for once. He knew for a fact that in this kind of situation he couldn't act like what he used to do back when he was seventeen, when things were still normal. That time was gone forever. No matter what happens in the future, it won't ever be the same as it was in the Host Club days.

It made him wonder actually, would anything change now? Will he and the rest spend their lives just struggling to survive in this infested world? He didn't know. How could he know? Everything that was happening around them wasn't something that can disappear overnight, but oh he wished it did.

He must've reached his sanity point, because everything just seemed to be falling apart so much that all his mind told him to do was laugh. He didn't do it out loud, but the feeling was the same. Not only did the world go insane and people start to eat away on other human beings, but everyone he knew changed, in one way or another. Everyone was overall the same, but yet they weren't.

Hunny was still his cake-loving self, but he was more observant and saw the world in a whole new light, causing him to see things as less 'cute'.

Mori of course was still the man of few words, but he was wiser than ever.

Kyouya continued to be serious like he always was, but had been more visible with his inner human emotions, considering there was nothing known as 'personal gain' anymore. His heart wasn't made of ice like everyone thought, just the warm core was hard to dig up.

The old Tamaki would be horrified if he knew that the new Tamaki had lowered down his self-esteem. Yup, the abnormally highly confident Tamaki had disappeared. Sure, he was still pretty damn confident in himself compared to most people, but he had lowered greatly. He had realised that he wasn't capable of doing everything perfectly right like he always thought (shocker). He knew he was a fool to try so much to get everything how he wanted it to be, and he realised that especially when he thought he would never see his beloved 'daughter' again. Now here's the real amusing thing, he had actually confirmed his actual feelings of Haruhi after the ordeal started, he just didn't know why his eyes and mouth kept saying daughter. _'Old habits die hard…'_ he thought to himself, a slight ghost-like smile on his lips.

Now, the twins, they were the ones who especially changed. Both twins had lost most of their devilish nature, and the mischievous twinkle in their eyes had died. Kaoru was still himself in most aspects, being the more open and kinder twin, but Hikaru had really changed. He had turned cold. Okay, it was a known fact that he wasn't nearly as open to the others as he was with Haruhi and Kaoru, but he still showed is emotions to a certain extent back then. If he was mad, he would show it; if he was happy, he would show it, mostly by playing tricks on the king; if he was upset, he would show it, specific proof from when he met Arai that one summer. But after the ordeal started, and Haruhi had disappeared from everyone's world, he turned colder than ice. He would barely show any emotions during the day. Even Kaoru was shocked, his brother had turned cold against him as well. The only real times Hikaru would've showed emotion was during the middle of the nights when he woke up from those stupid nightmares, and when he felt his rage take over whenever he killed those infected students, no one blamed him. Emotions can't stay bottled up forever.

* * *

_"Hikaru, Kaoru! Found anything yet?" Tamaki called out as he approached the sibling duo, coming out of a third-year classroom from checking if it had any supplies. Luckily for him, he had found a few good-working long-lasting batteries left in an abandoned tech-nerd's desk._

_"Nothing yet, Tono. Hikaru's trying to open this storage closet to see if there's something." Kaoru responded to his blonde lord, nodding his head towards Hikaru, who was trying to open a door with a crowbar with all of his might. Tamaki nodded and continued down the hall, going to the next classroom further down._

_"Did somebody nail the door from the inside or something?" Hikaru muttered, trying to push harder on the metal tool._

_As Kaoru was about to do a comeback on Hikaru's rhetorical question, the door flung open, and Hikaru stumbled forwards and landed face first on the ground. He lifted his head, grumbling curses under his breath, he heard an ear-splitting screech from his younger brother. He jerked his head up, eyes widening at the sight in front of him._

_"GET THE HELL OFF ME!" Kaoru shouted in vain at the student on top of him, struggling to push her off with his baseball bat while she clawed and tried her best to grab onto the younger twin. But this female student wasn't just any student, no. Any of the Host Club members would had been able to spot her from a mile away, it was indeed Ayanokoji herself in a bloody form of an infected._

_Before even Kaoru could blink, Ayanokoji's body flew off of him in a hastily speed. He looked up to his brother towering above him, his chest heaving from his heavy breaths, and his eyes boring holes on the twitching infectious student a few yards away. The emotion showing on his older brother's eyes were frightening, a deep burning passion of hatred and malice at the fiery redheaded former Host Club customer._

_Hikaru stepped over his younger twin, lifting the now bloody crowbar over his head as he continued to bore holes onto the girl with his eyes. Moaning was heard from the girl, and she lifted her upper body with her weak arms to look up hungrily at the redhead towering besides her. A malicious smile twitched at the corner of his lips as he stared down at the girl for a brief second, who had a deep gash on her forehead, blood flowing down endlessly. _

_"It's good that you're one of those hideous things now…" Hikaru begun to say quietly to her, the twitching grin turning wider by each word. The girl growled, and she was just about to lash at him before he hit her across the head hardly with his crowbar, snapping her head to the side and causing her body to fall to the ground. "…'cause now, I CAN KILL YOU FREELY!" Hikaru shouted at her, lifting the crowbar over his head again. _

_Kaoru stared at his brother in a mixture of horror and worry as he saw him lashing out his rage out at the girl, bashing her head several times, even after it was noticeable that she was dead._

_Kaoru stood on his feet and walked over to his brother, grabbed his arms and pulled them down to make him stop. Hikaru gave him a quizzical look, as if he forgot of what he had just committed._

_"Hikaru, she's dead now, you don't need to hit her anymore." Kaoru said firmly, narrowing his eyes at his living mirror image. Hikaru blinked, and looked down towards the endlessly bleeding female by their feet. The malicious smile twitched upwards again for a brief second, as he started to walk away from the corpse, still holding on to his weapon drenched in crimson liquid._

_"Heh, that felt good… That stupid bitch is finally gone…" Hikaru laughed quietly to himself, oblivious to the concerned frown forming upon his brother's face._

_Tamaki just stood there during this whole scene, at the far end of the hallway, frozen to the spot. He had ran out the moment he heard Kaoru's desperate scream, but stopped once he saw that Hikaru could take care of it. It only shocked him of how he decided to stop that infectious being, with so much force at that. It seemed as Hikaru actually enjoyed killing her, but Tamaki knew that wasn't the case._

* * *

Tamaki shuddered at that memory, remembering that twisted smile on the older twin's face. Nothing of the like ever happened again, and Hikaru placed his unemotional mask back on his face. Tamaki wasn't sure if he would ever forget that memory, but he knew that the occurrence that happened was just proof of what can happen to a person when they're near their peaking point of sanity.

It made Tamaki wonder, did Haruhi really have that affect on everybody? Causing them to change to something they don't know when she isn't around, but turn back to themselves on the instant they meet her again? That idea didn't sound too bad, it seemed as though it was true.

Wait, if that's true… And Haruhi is with Hikaru…

"OH MY POOR PRECIOUS DAUGHTER!" Tamaki screamed to the heavens, leaping up from his seat as he clutched his face in despair. "SHE'S WITH THAT EVIL DEVIL, I MUST SAVE HER–"

_WHACK_

"GAH! Kyouya~!" Tamaki whined and sat down again, staring pleadingly at his best friend who was holding a rolled up newspaper, which he used to whack Tamaki across the head.

"I thought you were over that already," Kyouya deadpanned, setting the newspaper aside. "Now, it isn't my fault if Ranka decides to throw you out."

"My, why didn't I think about that before?" Ranka said viciously, his face red with anger, causing Tamaki to tremble.

"Now, now, Ranka… Can we please think about this?"

"Out."

"Yes, sir!"

And with that Tamaki scrambled away and locked himself in closet, growing mushrooms in the corner.

* * *

"Well?"

Hikaru stared at the girl in front of him, who was blinking curiously at him, patiently waiting for the man's answer. His blush turned less intense as his eyes wandered down to the floor and a small warm smile came across his features, barely visible.

"You're totally in love with her, aren't you?" Rima stated. She didn't need words to know if he was a love struck fool or not, the eyes said it all.

"Yeah, I guess." Hikaru confirmed, looking up to her again.

"Have you told her?"

"Not yet."

"WHAT?!" she screamed, backing away in what seemed to be terror. "You're in this magical realm called love, but you haven't even at least opened the gates for the person you want in there with you?! Oh, the _horror_!" she exclaimed, sinking to her knees and raising her hand to her forehead, as if she was about to faint. For some reason, this girl reminded him very much of a certain blonde lord of his…

"It's really no big deal, I'm going to tell her eventually." Hikaru said, continuously watching the girl acting over dramatic.

"NO!" she shouted, standing up with her hands on her hips faster than the speed of light. Her determined posture matched her face, that was a combination of a scowl and determination. "You won't tell her _eventually_, that makes it sound like you'll never tell her and that you won't care if you don't! You have to tell her when the time's right!" she said, waving a finger at him. "When the timing is absolutely perfect, tell her!"

"And where exactly can I find such a perfect moment? We live in a world where _zombies_ walk around us." Hikaru deadpanned, raising an eyebrow as to emphasise his point.

"So?" she asked, smirking. "High-tech aliens could be around us and destroy our planet as well as experimenting on us but there still would be things such as perfect moments! Haven't you _ever_ watched movies?"

"What a great example, movies…" he muttered, rolling his eyes.

"Ah well, I don't know anything else…" she admitted, somewhat ashamed of herself for not figuring out a better example, a sweatdrop forming on her head. After a millisecond of awkward silence, she perked up and headed down towards a hall. "I'll just get the stuff and my keys! Be back in a sec!"

"Keys?" he questioned and followed the girl with his eyes, continuously staring until she disappeared into a room. His brows furrowed in confusion of just _how_ that girl and Haruhi could be good friends, until a certain click from a door interrupted his thoughts.

"Hey Hikaru, where's Rima?" Haruhi asked, stepping out of the room she had earlier entered.

"Fetching our supplies…and keys." he replied, looking over to her as she stood by the doorway. The only real difference in her appearance was the few bandages covering a cut here or there, but that was expected.

"Keys? For what exactly?" she questioned as she cocked her head an angle out of curiosity, one of the few habits she had kept ever since the world became insane.

"I could answer that question," the doctor with glasses from earlier said as he popped his head out of the crack from the doorway. "About a month ago Rima found a pickup truck with an actual working battery, and she recently got some gas for it. She might be willing to give you a ride."

"That's nice of her to do," Haruhi noted, letting a small smile of appreciation curve her mouth.

* * *

"Ugh, won't you ever just SHUT UP?!" Miya panted, due to lack of air from screaming so much, and leaned her back against the wall behind her and gliding down to the floor.

"I can ask the same thing to you…" Kaoru said, and sat down on the floor with crossed legs. "You were yelling so much your face almost turned purple."

"Oh just shut up." she wheezed, glaring at him from her position two yards away.

There was a silence between the two, and the tension was so thick it could have been cut with a knife, or however the saying goes.

Miya stared up at the ceiling, letting her thoughts go AWOL and cleared her mind until it went completely blank. _'Let nothing disturb you… Wait, why were we yelling? Ah yeah, about Haru and his brother. What does he expect me to do? Just ya know, "Hi Haru! Yeah, well, everyone found out about you being a smuggler and that Hikaru followed you and all, and they're worried so we are wondering if you could stop?" Pfft, like that would work. She'd probably respond with something like, "Ah don't worry, Miya, I can take care of it. No one has to worry, but you can keep the idiot if you want, he's only a nuisance." I think at least that's what she'd say about that twin, a nuisance. She did complain a lot that they kept bothering her during high school, and she refers everyone who bothers her a nuisance. It isn't really nice when she says those kind of things…_

_'Wait, what am I thinking about? Ah yeah, why Kaoru and I are fighting. Meh, stupid Hikaru, why did you have to follow Haru?! Oh wait, I kinda helped with that… Dammit, I have to think things through more often. Can't that guy just go?! BUT I NEED HIM TO OPEN UP! HE WAS SO DAMN AFFECTIONATE TOWARDS HER WHEN I MET HIM! WHY CAN'T HE JUST CONFESS HIS FEELINGS THAT HE HAS BEEN HARBOURING FOR SO LONG?! And since when did I use complicated words like 'affectionate' and 'harbouring'? AND DIDN'T I JUST USE THE WORD 'COMPLICATED'?! Fuuuuuck… Haru's brains are rubbing off on me… Not literally of course. BUT SHE'S MAKING ME USE MY BRAIN, AND SHE KNOWS I AM LAZY! Why is she making me think so damn muuuuuuuuuuch…?'_

"Hmf…fufufu…"

Miya woke up from her 'daydreaming' and blinked. She lifted her head to its original position, and easily located the muffled laughter. It was from Kaoru, and he seemed as if he was trying with all of his willpower not to laugh, even though some strangled sounds came out of his lips, that was pressed so tightly like he had stitched them together. She raised an eyebrow, wondering what was so amusing.

"What?" she bluntly asked, gluing her eyes towards the younger twin before her.

"YOUR FACE!" he blurted, clasping a hand over his mouth to stop his laughing, but failed miserably. "Seriously, what are you thinking about? I've never seen someone do such grimaces that looked so damn funny…!"

"Yes, yes, I know it's a stupid habit of mine…" she deadpanned, an impassive look on her face. She stared at the boy in front of her, who continued to laugh uncontrollably, even coming as far as to wipe a tear away from his eye. Watching the younger twin expressing such joy over something so little, not to mention just purely ridiculous, made the corners of her mouth turn upwards ever so slightly._ 'When I think about it, he's actually pretty cute…' _"WAIT, WHAT?!" she yelled in surprise at her on thoughts, her face cherry red.

The copper-haired teen stopped his laughing to a halt, and stared curiously at the red-faced blonde, raising an eyebrow at the process of trying to figure out why she screamed so suddenly.

"Eh, what?" he asked, cocking his head to the side.

"NOTHING AND DON'T SPEAK TO ME FOR NOW." she roared, abruptly standing up and stomping out of the room, the stupid red blush painted on her face._ 'WHAT THE FUCK WAS THAT THOUGHT?! Dammit Haru, you're depriving my toughness when you're gone!'_

* * *

"THIS WAY, MY HONOURABLE SUBJECTS!" Rima exclaimed as she walked down the hallway, a bag filled with different supplies on her shoulder and using a keyring, with several keys on it, as a hula-hoop for her finger while leading two teens towards the garage.

"Is it just me that thinks she's a female version of Tamaki?" the auburn-haired asked in a whisper to his brunette companion besides him. She snapped her eyes briefly towards him and shrugged.

"Don't you think I already know that?" she said, flickering her eyes towards the lighter haired brunette in front of her, who was happily humming a cheerful tune. "Maybe that's the reason I'm friends with her, I don't know."

"Hm," he grunted in agreement as he stared ahead.

"WE'RE HERE!" Rima exclaimed as she stopped in front of a door, and _literally_ _kicked_ it down to the ground to reveal a scruffy looking garage, with a man staring in surprise wearing ragged clothes. The surprised expression turned to a scowl.

"RIMA, THAT'S THE THIRD TIME THIS WEEK YOU BROKE THE HINGES!" he yelled, narrowing his eyes at the girl. She shrugged innocently and stepped over to the bronze-coloured pickup truck, while he grumbled as he took out a screwdriver and a few extra hinges.

"I know a part in town where there aren't many infected, and the roads are pretty cleared." Rima said as she opened the door to the driver's seat. "But it might still be– WHERE'S THE PASSENGER SEAT?"

"I took it! I needed a new chair!" the man called out from his spot by the door, screwing the hinges. Rima glared at the man, and mumbled incoherent curses under her breath.

"I guess both of you will have to sit at the back now…" Rima said to the two smugglers. "It seems as though everyone has taken all the seats. So you'll need to sit on the floor here." she said and opened the tailgate.

"Eh, I don't give a damn," Haruhi shrugged and hopped on, "at least we're getting a ride."

"Uh-huh, so hop on, ginger boy." Rima said and nodding her head at Hikaru, grinning at her new 'nickname' at him.

"That's the best you got?" Hikaru asked blandly, raising an eyebrow as he climbed onto the back of the truck. The girl pouted and closed the tailgate.

"Shut up," she said, a not-so-threatening glare thrown at him. "You better say what you need to say, the sky _does_ look extra special tonight."

"What?" Haruhi questioned the girl, but she only received a creepy grin in return with a pair of mischievous caramel eyes as accessories.

"Nothing! Tehehe…" she said, and opened the door to the driver's seat. She hopped in and inserted the key, roaring the engine to life. "One good thing about the whole world turning to chaos is that THERE'S NO SPEEDING TICKETS ANYMORE!" she screamed with delight, hitting the gas-pedal with full force. Without another word said from either party, she sped out of the garage and in to the street with full speed.

Unfortunately, the garage door had only opened up halfway, so now there's was a _very_ big dent on the door. Let's say someone wasn't very happy.

"RIMA, I SWEAR I AM GOING TO KILL YOU ONE DAY!" the man by the door roared, his face red with anger and veins popping out.

"BYE BYE, RYUU!"

That girl is too reckless, is she not?

* * *

"BYE CHIZU~!"

"Yes, goodbye, now leave before those gross things come and eat us."

"YES MA'AM."

The two bid their farewells and headed home in different directions, the raven-haired girl climbing up the wall like some kind of monkey. Chizuko stopped for a brief moment before leaving the alley and turned her head to see the infamous Queen of the Shadows, Kiome, swing around the buildings and acting like some kind of spider.

"How in the world am I friends with her? Nontheless, BEST friends with her?" she wondered to herself as she shook her head and sighed.

She shot a determined stare at the road ahead of her, and she ran with full speed, as usual. Heck, she didn't even remember the last time she just walked. She always had to run, no matter where she was, and now she could've competed in the school's track team if she had wanted to, that is if school still existed. She continued on like this for a while, ducking and hiding whenever a gore-covered infected would lurk around; moaning and groaning in hunger.

Finally, after what seemed like hours (even though it was only twenty minutes), she stood in front of the infamous door that people had labeled as her 'home'. She calmly twisted the doorknob, and opened the door while it creaked. Yet again, people sniggered and cooed as she walked past, but she ignored them all. Besides, as she mentioned earlier, they're only jealous. Why wouldn't they be? I mean, she has a 'different' look to her, she's one of the boss' 'favourites' and she's immune! Well, they didn't know the last bit. Yet, that is.

She came closer to the door at the back of the room, and just as she was about to reach for the door handle, it slammed open right in front of her, just missing her from being hit by an inch.

"JUST, NO." the messy bun'd brunette exclaimed angrily, sweat beating from her forehead as her face defined a scowl. "JUST, NO, ICHIRO! THAT'S JUST GROSS, IF YOU WANNA DO IT WITH SOMEONE, DO IT WITH EMI." she roared while stomping towards the bar, fixing her bra strap along the way.

"Ah, but Sada, I've already done it with Emi SO many times, I would like to have some variety." Ichiro sniggered, stumbling over to the door and leaning against its frame, a wicked grin on his weary features.

"Ichiro, I'll do it differently this time! I promise!" the strawberry blonde pleaded when she came up to him, latching onto his arm as she gave it a squeeze.

"Nah, you have said that before, but it only feels the same." Ichiro said, completely uninterested in the topic. "Besides, you always do it, why not let Sada do it?" he added, referring to the brunette who was downing a bottle of vodka by the bar. The strawberry blonde, also known as Emi, huffed and turned away, walking back to the couch and plopped herself down with crossed arms, causing her breasts to bounce slightly.

"Um… I am back?" Chizuko spoke, raising her eyebrow at the quarrel.

"Ah, it's just you, kid. Hurry back to your room now." the alcohol reeking man said indifferently, waving a dismissive hand at her. The girl with starlight haired obliged, taking quick steps to the narrow and bulky wooden stairs further back.

"Oy! Kento!" Chizuko heard Ichiro call out. She stopped by the top step of the stairs to listen, turning her head and strained her ears to hear more efficiently.

"Ja, taicho?" the man replied, voice indicating that he was ready to take orders.

"Any news on the Queen?"

"Queen of the Shadows? It's said that she was down that old market down the street earlier today, grabbing whatever stuff that seemed useful to her."

"Did anyone see what she took?"

"It looked like she took the shoelaces out from shoes."

"What? Why would she want that?"

Chizuko smirked, she knew that she had seen those shoelaces somewhere before. Plus the flashlight and socks. Being friends with the 'Queen' had its positive points, but she just hoped Ichiro wouldn't notice that her worn out stringy green laces were replaced with new white ones. Or that her pink socks covered with holes were replaced with blue clean socks. Both being replaced over night. That would be hard to explain…

* * *

Hikaru was thanking whatever deity that existed for letting him not die from the caramel-eyed girl's sudden 'adrenaline' rush. He literally couldn't feel his heart beat until the car slowed down, thankfully because the inbuilt CD-player of the car wasn't working.

Haruhi had lost count of the amount of times she had seen her friend bash the poor player with her fist through cracked window. The cinnamon-haired girl's eye began to twitch, and she was spitting so many curses at you once you would've thought she was speaking a foreign language. Or maybe she is, Haruhi couldn't tell.

"Uh, Rima?" Haruhi asked gently, visibly annoyed from watching her friend release her anger on something so unneeded.

"WHAT?!" the girl responded back, tightening her grip around the steering wheel as she sent telepathic venom through her glare.

"What exactly are you trying to accomplish?" Haruhi asked bluntly, no sign of any emotion at this point.

"Music, of course! You can't drive without some jazz, ne?" Rima chirped back, as though all of her past fury never existed.

"Right…has it ever just occurred to you that the volume is just off?" Haruhi pointed out, sticking her finger at the volume button that was on zero. The light-haired brunette blinked at the twistable button. Once, twice, thrice…

As mentioned from earlier, if life was an anime, she would've sweat dropped. About five times.

"Why didn't I think of that before…?"

"Because you don't know how to use your brain."

A glare was thrown at the crop-haired brunette.

"Way to state the obvious, Haru." Rima grumbled, arching her eyebrows as she turned the button so it pointed on seven. Soon enough, music began to softly echo out from the inbuilt speakers, but all three teens scrunched up their faces in disgust of the choice of song.

"God dammit, Ryuu must've changed it to his stupid 60's love crap." the girl muttered while pressing the eject button, and the CD with 'Ryuu's Music' written in Sharpee popped out. She roughly pulled it out, and opened the glove compartment. She tossed it in, not caring if the disc cracked or not, and rummaged through the small items until she found her 'treasure', that being a CD with 'Rima's iPod Shuffle' written in blue marker. "I put all my music from my iPod on this baby!" she said with triumph and sparkles in her eyes while holding up the disc, like it was some valuable treasure.

"Yeah, yeah, just put it in." Haruhi mumbled, rolling her eyes. The driver beamed and popped in the CD, eagerly waiting to hear what song would come on. To her surprise, it was _She Wolf_ by _David Guetta (feat. Sia)_ came on. Now, unfortunately to Haruhi and Hikaru, it's one of Rima's favourite songs, and due to that fact it made Rima squeal so loudly in excitement that even a deaf person would've winced from the loud noise.

"OMIGOD, I JUST LOVE THIS SONG!" she exclaimed, stars replacing her eyes.

"We noticed," Hikaru grumbled, itching his ear with his pinky finger to revive any form of hearing. As the girl kept bobbing her head to the beat, and Haruhi just picking her nails in boredom, he saw something in the corner of his eye come out of the building besides them.

An infected…

…and several of its friends crawling out from the neighbouring buildings.

"Haruhi?"

"Hm?"

"Look up."

The former proclaimed commoner lifted her head to see, and her eyes widened to an inhumane size. For a mere second, a flicker of panic crossed her eyes, and she looked around her in a haste to realise how slow they were going.

Due to the panic from the day of the infection, there were heaps of things on the ground that made the truck to slow down unless damage was intended to be done. There were anything you could think of; bottles, smashed or whole; weapons, most of them useless; bodies, infected and not; and just regular trash.

The hordes of the flesh-eating monsters kept flowing out of the buildings as the loud music blazed from the speakers; Crackers and all other sorts; they were gurgling the blood in their mouths or letting it splatter as they attempted to scream, but the blood only choked them.

One of them, not a Cracker but a newly infected, meaning it still had its eyesight, saw the moving vehicle with the group of teenagers on it, and it did what it only knew what it could do.

It roared as loud as it could, doing its best of telling his 'pals' about the meal in front of them. And with that, several of the monsters, especially the confused and dazed ones, shot the bronze truck a stare of determination all together. They roared together, making all of the buildings around to shake, and ran in their full speed towards the vehicle. The oblivious Rima, who had only been rocking out to her music the whole entire time, finally checked the commotion through her rear-view mirror. She let a small gasp escape her lips, but it became replaced by sly smirk.

"RIMA, GO FASTER!" Haruhi yelled to her friend, meanwhile as she and Hikaru pulled out small firearms to shoot as many infected they could with the limited bullets they had.

"Oh, I'm on it, Haru…" Rima said nonchalantly, as her eyes of caramel glinted in amusement. Without hesitation she bashed the CD-player with her fist, and smirked of the new song coming on, which was _Satisfaction_ by _Benny_ _Benassi_. **[A/N: Omigod, if you can see this scenario with this song in the background and think it fits, I give you my praise!]**

"What the fucking hell are you doing?!" Hikaru screamed at her and ignored the fact that her face could've outmatched Kyouya's face of the devil.

"I'm setting the mood, ginger boy," she chuckled and changed the gears. "Do not question my methods…"

As the so called 'ginger boy' furrowed his brows in a mixture of confusion and irritation, he was taken completely off guard when the female stomped her foot on the gas-pedal, sending the car in a flying speed on the road. He grabbed onto the side for dear life, and looked up to see the girl he loved standing while shooting with her weapons like some sort of madman.

"Do want to be killed, Haruhi?!" he yelled as he reached out an arm towards her in attempt to force her down, but his arm retreated when he felt a violent jolt on the truck and felt some gooey liquid splatter on his face and closed eyes. He opened his eyelids again and looked up to Haruhi, who herself and the shotgun she held (which she conveniently found in the pickup) was covered in blotches of blood. She stopped momentarily in her shooting rampage and glared down at the Hitachiin, eyes blinded with hatred and determination. Before the redhead manage to let a word slip out of his mouth, he received a bonk across the head from the butt of the weapon she was holding.

"Hikaru, we WILL die if we don't kill these fucking blood-mouthed fuckers that are literally chasing us because they want to eat us. So, unless you wanna freaking die then be my guest and slouch around because I am not going to save your pathetic ass!" she spat at him as she aimed with her gun, ready to shot the next infectious beast. The gun did a 'kaboom' sound as she pulled the trigger, and she continued on with her colourful speech. "Even Rima is managing to kill some of them, and she's only driving over them in a blind rage!" As if to prove her point, Hikaru felt another violent jolt from the vehicle. He saw a ragged looking female infected flying over the vehicle, causing all of her injuries and bloody mouth to sprinkle their blood onto the two teens.

_'So that explains the blood on my face from earlier…'_ he thought to himself as he saw the female's body land on a few infected, they struggling to push her off in vain. He pried off his vision off from the unsympathetic group of beasts, and placed his pupils back onto the brunette above him, blindly shooting with the loud shotgun.

The Hitachiin closed his eyes, and tried to muster up all of his courage he owned in his eighteen year old body._ 'Jesus Christ, Hikaru, snap the fuck out of it… It's not like you're gonna confess or anything…' _he reassured mentally as he tried to stand, but just as he was about to straighten his legs, he found himself being jerked down by the arm. He let out a yelp and in reflex he punched the infected human across the head with his gun, who had tried to bite his arm but missed just on time. After that life-threatening experience, he stood tall, clutching to the roof of the truck so he wouldn't fall.

He rotated his head to find any specific infected person he could shoot, and found one who was desperately trying to claw themselves up on the truck, which Haruhi missed because she only shot at random. He took a quick aim, and pulled the trigger, landing a bullet straight through the middle of its head. Its clawing stopped in an instant, and it fell while it blended in with the crowd of flesh-hungry humans.

"Damn, Hikaru!" Haruhi exclaimed. "You need to show me how you aim like that!" she said and smiled, never taking her eyes off of the hungry humans.

"It's called years of practice, Haruhi." Hikaru smirked as he gave a quick side glance to her, before shooting another head.

"You had guns even before the infection?" she inquired, raising an eyebrow but otherwise completely unfazed.

"No, not actual guns…" he clarified, a sheepish smile on his face. "More like video games…"

* * *

"It's almost four am, where the heck are they?!" Tamaki whined as he brushed away his fringe with his fingers, an obvious pout on his face. Yes, it was the early hours of morning, but still the members of the former club, the blonde and the former okama had not let fallen to the clutches of sleep yet. They were all getting impatient, and a certain raven-haired teenager with glasses and a short blonde was starting to turn grumpy from lack of sleep, but they still wanted to stay awake. Their companions could come any minute, right?

"Sometimes Haru can be gone until five am… Don't worry, she'll be back soon." Miya tried to reassure, but it only came out as a weak sputter since she still had the red blush painted on her face from earlier. Everyone were very confused when they heard that the 'argument' suddenly had stopped, and they became even more confused when a tomato-red Miya stomped inside with a confused looking Kaoru trailing right behind her. What caused it, they had no clue. The only one who knew was Miya, but she couldn't even make out a single sentence without sounding slurred.

"I hope so, I'm worried about Hika-chan and Haru-chan…" Hunny said as his lip began to quiver, and small tears started to collect in his eyes. "What happens if they became eaten?!"

"DON'T SAY SUCH VILE THINGS, HUNNY!" Tamaki shouted dramatically while melting into a puddle of worry. "MY POOR PRECIOUS DAUGHTER CAN'T BE SMITTEN BY THAT HORRIBLE DISEASE!– Wait… OR EVEN WORSE, SHE MIGHT BECOME SMITTEN FROM HIKARU!"

"Eh? But Hika-chan wouldn't do that, Tama-chan. Besides, Takashi told me that he had a hunch of what's really going on!" Hunny chirped, all signs of tears completely disappeared. The whole group stared expectantly at the stoic man, who merely acknowledged their hardcore gaze.

"They're being chased by a horde of infected." he said, his tone flat. All faces of high expectations dropped to disappointment.

"Okay, even I know that this idea seems impossible…" Tamaki mumbled, leaning his back against the wall. "Where would they found of horde of zombies anyway?"

Poor Tamaki… If you only knew…

"They aren't zombies, you dimwit!" Miya snapped, her red blush subsiding a notch. "They're living human beings that have a disease which causes them to eat people and other zombie-like behaviour. A zombie is a dead person who came back who has dead features, rotten blood and such but they eat brains, which infected do not eat."

"How'd you know that?" Kaoru inquired innocently, just plain curious of how she knew difference.

And the now infamous blush of Miya reappeared on her face, as she lowered her gaze to the floor and hid her eyes behind a curtain of hair.

"A hunter just know their facts…plus I was a major zombie fan when I was in middle school…" she mumbled bashfully, the burning sensation on her poor cheeks increasing.

"Didn't you say you had a subscription from some website? What was it know again?" Ranka pondered, tapping his index finger on his chin.

" …" Miya murmured. "…They had some cool zombie toys and comics there… I wish wi-fi still existed in the world."

"Mm, yes. I miss chatting with my fellow co-workers from the tranny bar through Facebook." Ranka sighed empathetically, shaking his head. "AND I MISS MY TRANNY-GEAR!" he exploded into sobs, and Miya patted his back sympathetically.

"We all do, but what really matters is that you're alive." Miya tried to comfort, but the sobbing Ranka continued to bawl. The former members of the Host Club just gave them the most quizzical look known to man.

* * *

Rima's devilish grin never subsided as her caramel eyes glinted evilly, a dark purplish aura similar to Kyouya's around her. Her vision was clouded in fury, and she never really noticed the several bodies of Crackers and newly infected she drove over. Her grin and evil twinkle disappeared, as if they never had been there in the first place, and replaced them with curiosity as she saw something through the blanket of different shades of red on her window. It looked like…a clear road?

Yes, that's what it was!

There was a visible gate blocking the road, nothing she couldn't run over, with the a sign showing that it had been a 'clearing zone'. Her safe escape. Kind of. At least she could go faster without any interruption, that being the 'zombies', and get herself plus her friends to safety. But then she would have to find a road back to Ichiro's gang, and that might take a while.

I think everyone can agree that their lives are more important than the extra time they waste.

"OKAY YOU TWO, HOLD ON!" she called over her shoulder, letting a smile of pure joy grace her lips. I mean, sure, she was already speeding over the 'legal' limit (that does not exist anymore), but how often do you get to drive at top speed?!

That is a once in a lifetime thing, and _HECK YEAH_ she is going to use it.

"HUH, WHAT?!" Haruhi yelled back, but before she received an answer, she was nearly thrown off from the sudden speed the vehicle started to move in. From pure instinct, the brunette latched onto her redheaded friend and viewed in awe as they came further away from the flesh-eating humans. The Hitachiin blushed for a moment, but it went as fast as it came when yet another jolt from the vehicle came, causing the two to fall (on the truck thankfully) and Hikaru landing on top of the Fujioka.

"Sorry guys! I just broke through the gates and we should soon be gone from them!" Rima informed happily, continuously stepping on the gas-pedal so they went faster.

The auburn-haired male lifted his head and groaned from his throbbing head that he received when he slammed down. His eyes snapped open and a familiar dark red coloured his face as he heard some moaning from underneath him, that specifically came from a brunette Fujioka he knew.

"Ow… First my back gets ripped open then I receive a damn concussion, what's next?" Haruhi moaned in pain as she blinked her eyes open. Once the sudden drowsiness went and her vision focused, she realised that Hikaru was on top of her and unconsciously pinning her down, causing her face to turn to a burning bright red.

Suddenly, the screen paused and the scenery bleached out in colour as if the lights in a movie theatre turned on, which was the case. Excessive coughing was heard in the background, and the camera shot drifted away from the two hundred inch TV in the huge private cinema in the Suoh mansion. The camera shot turned towards a coughing seventeen year old Tamaki that was choking on a piece of popcorn. The indifferent Ohtori besides him pushed up his glasses further up the bridge of his nose, and punched the blonde rather hardly on the back. The Suoh coughed up the cloud-shaped corn, sending it flying across the room.

"Ah… Thank you, Kyouya…" the blonde panted out as he regained his breath, and the raven-haired man just replied with a bored 'you're welcome'. The blonde steadied his breath as he leaned back in his plush theatre seat, oblivious to all the sweatdrops attached to the heads of four of the hosts around him. The blonde took a sharp intake of breath and pointed accusingly with one finger at the screen and the other a the sixteen year old elder twin two seats away. "MOMMY, WHY IS THAT TWIN MOLESTING MY DAUGHTER?!"

The Ohtori sighed as he pinched the bridge of his nose, trying to control the irritation boiling up within him. He opened his mouth to explain, but was quickly interrupted by a loud slam from the double doors at the side of the room.

The seven hosts looked up towards the direction of the doors to find a long-haired thirteen year old brunette standing there; her hair straight from her hair-straightener; a baggy aqua coloured sweater with a floral pattern at front for top and blue denim shorts for bottom; her feet bare; a fluorescent pink cord hanging loosely between the attached earbuds in her ears and matching pink clad Samsung Galaxy S2 resting in her pocket; an iPad 2 in a bulky black Gumdrop case tucked under her arm; her right eye twitching sickly.

"Ah, Nicoletta-sama, what brings you here?" Kyouya inquired politely, his glasses reflecting the light in a business-like manner. The girl's right eye stopped twitching, and she carefully walked inside the plush carpeted room with her bare feet, giving no response to the young Ohtori male. Six out of the seven hosts watched the young brunette step over towards the rich seventeen year old blonde with unfazed expressions, as while the said blonde began to shiver in fear.

The brunette stood in front of him and lowered her head to meet his eyes, never changing her serious expression as she acknowledged the beads of sweat dripping down his forehead. Without ever leaving her dull indifferent brown eyes from his fearful violet ones, she clutched the remote that rested on the armrest in her hands.

_THWACK_

Not a single noise was heard after the brunette bonked the blonde across the head with button-covered remote control, her face blanker than blank as she held up the weaponry known as the remote while the Suoh rubbed his growing bump gingerly.

"Tamaki, don't interrupt my work." she said softly, but the soft tone still managed to curl the second-year into a ball of cowardliness.

"Yes, Nicoletta-sama…" he murmured, covering his eyes behind a curtain of golden locks.

"Good boy." she chirped and patted his head, sending shivers up his spine. The rest of the Host Club sent questionable glances at the girl as she lazily walked over to a large brown comfortable chair in the far corner of the room, stifling a yawn under her hand while she plopped down and dangled her shaved bare legs over the armrest.

"Now, WE SHALL CONTINUE!" she exclaimed grandly as she directed the remote towards the TV, pressing the 'play' button. All seven hosts shifted their vision from the young brunette back to the TV screen as the room began to darken once again, happily munching on their endless supply of popcorn. The camera shot drifted back to the screen, who was now fully supplied in colour so you could see the dark red faces of the eighteen year old Haruhi and Hikaru. The scenery begun to move once again…

…And we're back at the future older twin and Fujioka's dilemma.

The two's flushed faces darkened, and strangled vowels escaped the Hitachiin's lips in attempt to speak in the awkward situation.

"Ah! Sorry, Haruhi!" he said and scrambled off the girl, the intense blush stepping up a notch. Said girl sat up and awkwardly tucked a few stray hairs behind her ear, looking down embarrassed as the image of the two lingered in her brain.

"No worries…" she replied.

A pained silence filled up in the air, and the driver cleared her throat in a weak try to clear the awkwardness. She looked up to her rear-view mirror and noticed that the unlimited amount of monsters that were chasing them earlier had now lost their trail of them, and she slowed down the vehicle she was driving. She also noticed the visible nervousness and awkwardness between the two, and she sighed in a mixture of content and annoyance.

_'I don't know how much they've matured since the outbreak, but either way, they're still pathetic when it comes to feelings of love. I guess that is something that stayed from their sixteen year old selfs… But it's not like I am any better… BUT IT IS PAINFUL WATCHING THIS. IT'S LIKE WATCHING THAT SOAP OPERA I USED TO SEE!'_ Rima thought as she furrowed her brows, highly annoyed by the current situation. And as if some sort of god had heard a her thoughts, she unconsciously thanked whatever deity that selected the next song on her CD-player, which just happened to be _I Need Your Love_ by _Ellie Goulding_._ 'HEY, I MUST HAVE A GUARDIAN ANGEL OR SOMETHING!…but I might be the only one who thinks that…'_ she thought, feeling some sweat trailing down her forehead.

"Haruhi?" Hikaru spoke up, oblivious to the music and the constant muttering from the driver. "How often do you get yourself in those kind of situations just like now?" he inquired casually while looking up to her, trying to start a conversation, the blush subsided. The girl in question eyed him, not in a suspicious way, more like a curious way.

"Being chased by uncountable number of beasts or have a near-death experience?" she asked simply, raising an eyebrow.

"E-either…" he replied shakily, wondering how she could ask such a thing like it was a common thing.

She placed her index finger on her chin thoughtfully as she scrunched up her brows, her eyes gazing downwards.

"The first option has happened about three times before… And the second one happens about ten times a week." she responded nonchalantly, her tone even and flat. This sparked the twin's interest.

"That often?" he asked curiously, cocking his head to the side.

"Uh-huh." she replied while nodding her head, watching the city fly past them while her hair danced with the wind.

"Does it ever cross your mind that you would regret something if you suddenly died or whatever?"

"Not really, I have nothing to regret." she said and stared curiously at him. "Do you?"

The Hitachiin's face flushed red, but he gulped and replied, "Yeah."

"What would that be then?"

"I would regret that I didn't confess."

"Confess? Confess what? To who?"

"That I love you."

* * *

**AND WE SHALL CURRENTLY WRAP IT UP THERE FOR THE MOMENT! Sorry for the sucky ending with a slight cliffie, it's just that I wanted to finish the chapter quickly since it was VERY late and I still had to edit this… -.-**

**WHAT WILL HAPPEN NEXT, YOU WONDER? **

**Well, to be honest, I have no fricken clue. xD WE'LL JUST HAVE TO WAIT AND SEE!**

**REMEMBER GUYS, VOTE ON THE POLL, I WANNA KNOW WHAT YOU GUYS WANT AFTER THIS!**

**Okay… I am ****_VERY_**** tired right now, so I am gonna go to bed. BYE MY LITTLE MINIONS! XD**


	11. AUTHOR NOTES AGAIN

**Hey everyone! Yes, author notes once again! (I am doing these quite often, aren't I?)**

**Sorry to say everyone, but I'm going to go on a brief hiatus for few weeks. It won't be long, just a few weeks (longest would be until I get my own iPad, which could be around two months from now, but I doubt it).**

**A lot of things are happening, and I would like to have them out of the way before I start posting. I am still going to write during this time, but it'll be extremely slow and I'd rather catch up on my writing before I continue posting.**

**My graduation is coming up, we're doing stupid dance lessons at school for some competition I don't even wanna be in (but I have to), I have presentations to present to my class, I'll be handing in my iPad at the end of this term, plus I am planning my next long fanfic after this one. **

**I am brainstorming a little from the options left from my poll (which I'll mention is ****_still_**** open), and I am coming along good. This is a screenshot of how much I have done so far: imgur (dot c-o-m) / Py9vQ74 (Minus the spaces and such, you get it.)**

**I feel really awful by doing this, I really do (especially since I left a cliffy at the last chapter) but I am trying. For some reason fate has given me all of these tasks to manage and I HATE it.**

**I'll let you guys have a small preview of the next chapter, because I otherwise feel like an arsehole. xD**

* * *

**~Chapter 10: Fate's Choices Preview~**

"…Haruhi?"

She snapped out of her thoughts and looked back at him, replying, "Yeah?"

"Can I…do one more thing? Just in case we would suddenly die from this crazy girl driving into God knows what." he asked softly, having some sort of pleading look in his eyes.

_'EXCUSE ME?'_ thought a certain 'crazy girl' who was driving, glaring at the redhead through the rear-view mirror. _'One more comment about my driving and I'll crash the car on purpose…'_

"And that'd be…?" Haruhi asked, an eyebrow raised for the question.

He leaned in closer, and tilted her chin up so their eyes met in a perfect invisible line of vision in between them. "Just…hold still for a second, okay?" he whispered. She nodded numbly in response, and he closed the distance between them within seconds. He pressed his lips against her gently; she neither pulled away or deepened this kiss, just sitting their limply in shock.

* * *

**Short preview, and I feel awful… **

**Anyways, I'll be seeing you all hopefully soon! **

**BYE BYE MY FRIENDS, I'LL BE BACK SOON!**


End file.
